Frozen Through Time
by SecretReading
Summary: The last thing Jack ever expected was to go straight through the windshield of a falling jet, or for the super soldier inside to see him. He also didn't expect to accidently freeze them both and lay unconscious in the ice for seventy years, or to be offered the chance to be trained by SHIELD when he awoke.
1. Chapter 1

_Darkness. That's the first thing I remember. It was dark, and it was cold, and I was scared. But then, then I... saw the moon. It was so big and it was so bright, and it seemed to chase the darkness away. And when it did... I wasn't scared anymore. _

_Why I was there, and what I was meant to do - that I've never known. And a part of me wonders if I ever will. I remember looking around, confused and looking to the moon for guidance. The only thing it gave was a dimming in its bright sheen. _

_More confused than ever, I stepped carefully across the ice. I looked up to see the frozen trees, covered in glistening snow. They the seemed to be leaning in, and the world around me seemed to be holding its breath._

_A light pain in my toe startled me out of my trance. Looking down, I found the offending object. A simple wooden staff, with a hooked end. I gingerly nudged it with my toe, and small patterns spread across its length. Intrigued, I picked it up, and I felt the raw energy run through my fingers. The staff must've felt the same way, because it lit up like a Christmas tree, glowing an eerie, calming blue. Odd._

_Studying the strange stick, a burst of energy light up the staff once more. I fumbled with it, and the energy that had been running through my fingers was channelled through the staff and spread over the ice around me. Frost. It's was unique and perfectly patterned, yet random all at the same time._

_I was now more confused than ever! What was this stick? And what was this strange connection I felt with it? Curiously, I touched the curved end of the strange staff to a nearby_ cluster_ of trees. The same thing happened! The frost wasn't so rushed and excited. It was slow and beautiful. Fern-like curls erupted from where the staff came in contact with the tree. Looking down, I noticed that these were the same patterns as the ones on my staff._

_I touched another tree, I did it again and again! It felt so good! Me! I was creating these beautiful patterns. A giddy sense of childlike euphoria over come me and I ran freely across the frozen pond, the staff trailing behind me, leaving the frost patterns all over the pond. I twirled and jumped, slipped and slid all over the pond, spreading the frost. My frost! It was amazing! The world around me seemed to sigh._

_It... it was one of the only times I can remember being truly happy..._

* * *

Jack sat on a thatched roof, staring at the only thing that had ever talked to him, let alone, recognised him since it woke up. His name? Jack Frost. How does he know? The Moon told him so. But that was all it ever told him. Now it ignored him, as he tried to remember something. _Anything_. He sat on that stupid roof, cold tears threatening to spill down his frozen face as he racked his brain for answers. Jack could remember some things, like what a town looked like, how to make a fire, the feeling of going to sleep after a long day's work.

But how does he know how to do these things, and what they feel like? Where are the memories that should accompany them? But most of all, why can't anyone _see_ him? Jack watched young children shout and play in the village centre, their parents sitting with tired smiles on their faces, huddled together by a cozy fire. He felt a pang in his heart. He _knows_ what it feels like to thaw out by a fire, but he can't remember.

Jack curled up into a frozen ball on the roof, not at all fazed of the fact the he was laying almost vertical, he just wanted to forget todays events, but how could he forget the only memories hes ever made. It wasn't very comfortable, but Jack managed to use his staff for balance and shut his eyes and doze for a short while.

Jack's eyes snapped open and he was on his feet instantly as a loud yell echoed through the town. A huge, burly man stood next to the ashes of a cold fire, dressed in warm winter attire. Jack wondered _'why I didn't get cold?'_ It probably had something to do with the frost thing.

The sun was in the process of replacing the moon as it peaked it fiery head over the horizon. All the townspeople began to shuffle out of their respective homes. The white-haired boy took this as his cue to leave. Jumping into their air, he let the playful tug of the wind whisk him away.

* * *

Jack didn't know where he was. Somewhere cold. He was lounging across that back of someone's horse, as they trudged the freshly fallen snow that he had recently created. There were three warmly dressed men, and they were each grumbling about having to ride through the snow. Jack was on the leader's horse, and he was grumbling the most, and the loudest. By the sounds of the man rumblings, the Frost Spirit had slowed down their schedule by a couple of hours. Smirking to himself, Jack waved his staff and a light snow began to fall.

The guy went ballistic. He absolutely hated snow by the sounds of it. He turned his head upwards and shouted obscenities at the sky. Jack's smirk turned into a frosty grin. One of the men behind him turned and stared wide-eyed in his direction and Jack gasped. Had.. had he seen him? Ah, nope. He was gaping at one of the particularly nasty things the guy up front had said. He was still ranting and raving about the snow.

Jack rolled his eyes. _'Geez lighten up'_ he muttered. Floating down to scoop up some of the freshly fallen powdery substance, Jack took aim at the man's face and blew it at him. The man stopped his grumbling and his face went a little slack for a second. Jack's eyes widened and he panicked, thinking that he had hurt him somehow, when the man began giggling. His giggling turned into roaring laughter as he halted the group and jumped off of his horse. He began throwing snow at the others. Jack was completely shocked. What had he done to this man?

Jack needed to try this again. Leaning on his trusted staff, once more, he scooped up some snow, and doing the exact same thing to the other two men. After a brief stunned moment, they both joined their leader to frolic in the snow. Jack began laughing himself! He was overjoyed at the discovery of a new power! Finding out about a new power meant discovering more about himself, and he hoped one day to discover his memories. With a wistful sigh, the boy took to the sky, leaving three grown men to play in the snow.

* * *

Jack guessed he was loitering somewhere in the arctic. He was planning on extending the ice flats more into the sea, when a screeching noise sounded in the distance. 'Oh god.' Jack groaned. His experience with jets has never been memorable. He remembered his first encounter with one of those nasty machines. Jack was trying to freeze a cloud in a particularly humid country, when a thing came out of nowhere and almost killed him! It hit him head on, and the startled boy tumbled across the top of it before falling through the sky. Luckily enough, Jack just caught himself before he hit the ground, but it was definitely a learning experience for him. He has avoided them ever since.

Jack began to drift away, when he noticed that the thing was heading straight for him. He also noticed that it was a strange shape, and colour for that matter. Jack called the wind to him and began to move faster out of the machine's path but had little time to get very far before he crashed through the windscreen. Jack would have felt bad, but it already had some holes in it, so it didn't seem like too big of an issue. He noticed that there was only one person aboard, he was dressed in a blue and white suit, and someone was saying his name over the radio. 'Steve, STEVE!'

Steve could only stare dumbfounded, at the alien being that has just crashed through his windshield, and was unable to answer to his name being called. Wait.. that man could see him? Jack thought. He could see HIM?! The spirit had only just realised that we were crashing though, and had no time to ponder the matter. Another thing he didn't have time for was to escape before the ship made impact.

They both saw stars when they hit the ice, and it was by far one of the worst impacts Jack have ever had. Sure, he's fallen from the sky before, but he was always really light, so could usually dust himself off and move on. But this was tons of projected metal crashing in front of Jack and behind him. It felt like Steve and he were both thrown from the jet and into the water. There were flashes of white and blue, as water and ice swirled around them. Jack could feel Steve thrashing around beside him. He clutched his staff like a lifeline, as he couldn't bear to let it go. It was dark, and it was cold, and he was scared. But this time, Jack didn't see the moon.

He was panicking now, Jack had lived over 200 years, so he knew age couldn't kill him, but he was so sure that this would. Jack hadn't exactly tested my limits. He was now beyond scared. Panicking, he released a burst of energy, freezing the water around him.

Everything was still; there was no thrashing, or splashing anymore. Jack couldn't move. He saw Steve though. The soldier was directly in his line of vision. Oh god, no. How was Jack going to get out of here? He could freeze water, not melt ice! He controls the cold things, not the warm things! Oh god, what had he done. Jack's eyes drooped. When was the last time he had slept? It felt like years ago. Steve seemed to be sleeping. So Jack slept, the world around him went black, and his consciousness slipped away...

* * *

A/N This is my first time writing a fic, and this AU is one I've always wanted to see so I decided to write one myself! Please review, any criticism welcome!


	2. Chapter 2

It was so dark, and he was still so _tired_. The world was still, yet he heard voices echoing around him. Jack heard loud scraping noises, heavy machinery whirring, and echoed shouts. Crack. The ice encasing his frozen body loosened, and all of a sudden he was free! He wasn't tired anymore! He was energised! Light as a feather. The dazed spirit began to sit up, when the memories washed through his brain. Steve. The jet. The crash. The ice.

He _saw_ him.

Frantically, Jack looked around. He saw that he and Steve hadn't actually been flung from the jet, as they were still inside. And it was just a little more frozen that he remembered. Steve had been dug out of the ice, and there were men crouched over him. There was so much activity in this place! Jack couldn't believe how many huge machines they fit into the frozen ship!

Jack was beginning to get feeling back into my hands, so he put one hand beside me on the ice, trying to stand up. Leaning on his staff, Jack shook his head, and looked around. He needed to get out of here. The nervous boy took a step and fell over, hitting his head. Jack groaned and lifted his head from the slippery ice. The room was silent as more than a dozen heads turned to looked in his direction. Those who didn't gasp had their mouths hung open, their jaws slack.

Jack found the situation hard to believe. He has tried _so many times_ to get people to notice him, and all it took here was for Jack to fall over and hit his head. Really, the noise wasn't that loud. Jack was paralysed with shock as a dark skinned man in a black trench coat cautiously approached scared looking boy. He had an eye-patch too. Yep. Jack decided it was time to get the hell outa there. Jack's previous experience with big scary guys with eye patches haven't been too memorable.

Clutching his staff in one hand, Jack hovered in the air, and everyone gasped this time. Well, everyone except the dark skinned man. He was actually getting a lot closer, at a much quicker pace. Jack panicked and flew up at full speed, faster than when he was attacked by that stupid savage wolf. Jack must've forgotten he was underground though, because he saw stars when pain erupted from my head when it hit the ceiling at full speed. Jack crumpled to the ground. Groaning once more from head trauma, Jack turned my head, and the last thing he saw was a red white and blue emblem plastered onto a shield before darkness clouded over his vision.

* * *

Nick Fury stood over the sleeping boy with a scowl on his face. He and Steve had been transported onto the shield Hellicarrier a little over a week ago now, and were sleeping soundly. The machines showed the boys temperature was just a little over 30 degrees. Which wasn't possible by human standards, but Fury had seen stranger things in his life. What had been strange though, was that when he assigned his top scientists to examine, they reported that the kid had escaped!

He had abandoned everything, rushed over to the examination room, only to see a sleeping boy tucked safely away in his sleeping caspule. Fury was, well, was furious, thinking that the agents had played some kind of practical joke. After a few minutes of shouting and yelling at them, He realised that they actually _couldn't see him. _He then had to spend 20 minutes convincing SHIELD's top scientists that he was there, they just could'nt see him. It took a lot of pesuasion, but one of the less sceptical scientists had stared really hard at the capsule and gasped in surprise. He began babbling that there really was a white-haired boy lying in there, and one by one, the others saw him.

That had been an awkward time for Fury, and Nick Fury does no do awkward. Fury sighed, rubbing his hand over his face, and thought about the current situation. What if this kid was dangerous? Fury couldnt just let him go. If worst comes to worst the kid would have to be detained. But what if he was complient. A thought came to mind. This kid could fly, and survive 70 years trapped in solid ice. He could be useful. Fury knew he needed to keep the flying boy in his sights. But, if he was to be useful, he would need training...

* * *

_'Ugh, lights. Ugh, voices. Go away noisy people, leave me to sleep.' _Jack thought as he awoke. He groaned a loud, somewhat obnoxious groan before opening my eyes. The voices got louder and more frantic. He could hear people shouting and rushing around, but all Jack could see was the ceiling. Once again, memories flooded his brain and a gasp escaped his thoughts. He bolted upright, shattering the glass that had been encasing me. '_Head wound #3.' _he thought.

More people yelled, but they were yelling at him this time. His one track mind didn't want to hear what they were saying, and at that moment Jack didn't even care whether they could see him or not. All he wanted was his staff. The only thing Jack held precious. His one and only possession, aside from the clothes on his back.

The atmosphere changed all of a sudden. It went from frantic and rushed to silent and tense. Jack was confused as to why when Fury walked in. He had that no-nonsense look about him, and it looked like everyone in the room respected that. Jack's eyes narrowed and he sat stiff as a board in the glass-strewn box as the man approached. He wasn't cautious, and looked pretty confident he knew what he was doing. But Jack could see the noticed in his features.

Finally the taller man spoke. "Who are you, and why were you found in the ice?" His voice held an air of authority to it, and Jack knew immediately that he was the one in charge. He tried to act casual. Jack didn't want to say anything just yet though, so he examined my fingernails, touching each of them and spreading miniature frosted patterns all along the surface,

Fury watched my with a quirked eyebrow. '_Who did this kid think he was?'_

"I do not like to repeat myself. So I'll ask another question instead. He took a step closer and crouched down to my level, and looked me in the eyes as his voice softened. "What is your name?"

Jack looked him in the eye, forcing his own expression blank. This was the first real person who had ever talked to him directly. The least he thought he could do was tell him his name. It was supposed to come out confident, and confident, but instead sounded low, and quiet. "Jack Frost" I whispered.

Jack heard a few of the others snicker at that. He immediately shut my mouth, a hurt expression taking over my features. Ouch, why did that sting so much? A hard look covered Eyepatch's previously surprised face. He stood straight up and turned. "That's it!" He boomed, "Every agent leave the room AT ONCE!" All of the people slunk out of the room.

The already nervous boy cringed at the volume of Fury's voice, but was also intrigued by his words. _'Agents?'_ He thought, '_Where the hell was I?_' He turned back to me, his hard features softening once more. Fury wasnt exactly sure how to talk to this kid, but it seemed like his hardass attitude wouldn't work. "Jack Frost. That's certainly a fitting name. I am Director Nick Fury. And welcome to the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. I know it's a mouthful, so it is better known as S.H.I.E.L.D. You are currently aboard the Helicarrier. Do you have any questions, Jack Frost?"

His mouth was dry. Jack had so many questions. They were bouncing around inside his frosted head, vying for a chance be spoken. But there was a few questions that rose above the rest, "What happened? Why am I here? Where is my staff!?" he demanded.

Fury smirked at that. "Well, Mr. Frost your staff is in a safe place rest assured. You were found frozen in the ice next to a 92 year old super soldier. You've been unconscious for weeks and you've been here ever since. You were very cold when we pulled you out, and your body temperature was so low we were surprised your blood hadn't yet frozen in your veins. But you were alive. We tried everything to get you warm again, even had our top scientists build a specialised chamber to warm you up. But... You didn't respond well. As your body heated up you got weaker and weaker, your heartbeat slowed and you pulse thinned. So we left you just as you were, and you got better. Your body temperature says you shouldn't be alive, but you are, Mr. Frost. Not only that but you survived an air crash and was alive after nearly 70 years of being frozen in ice. So I have another question for you. How?"

Jack gulped. Wow, this Fury guy had really explained it well. Jack knew from experience that he didn't react well to hot weather, and generally tended to stay in the colder parts of the world. Seventy years had passed as well, meaning that he was now a little over 300 years old. How does he explain to this man that he was an ancient being that controls wind and ice? Jack decided to answer his original question first.

"To answer your first question, I crashed through the windshield of the jet and didn't have enough time to escape so I crashed as well."

Jack fell silent, awating Fury's reply.

'And there is nothing else you wish to tell me, Mr. Frost?'

"Uh, nope! That's all folks, come back tommorrow for more of Jack's backstory. Maybe I'll tell you more if I had my staff with me. It's always been a great conversation starter."

Fury remained calm and stoic, though Jack could see the twinge of annoyance in his eyes. The only change in expression was a quirked eyebrow when I mentioned my staff. He blinked at me before turning away to talk into his handheld device, mumbling something about Jack's staff. It wasn't even 10 seconds before an agent walked in, carrying his staff. Jack stood up, ignoring the dizzy feeling in my head and rushed toward my staff.

He began to rush forward, but Fury sidestepped in front of him. "Tell me more, Jack Frost."

Jack rolled his eyes._ 'I may as well get it over and done with.'_ he thought. "You really want to know? Fine. Here we go. I'm an immortal frost spirit, I control the wind and ice, and I turned 300 while I was stuck in the ice. Steve was the first person to ever see me, and.. I-" Jack's voice choked up as tears threatened his eyes. He shook them away and cleared his throat. "I have roamed the earth invisible for a long time, bringing snow to different places of the world. My staff is the only thing I own, so GIVE IT THE HELL BACK!" Jack finished with a loud shout, so angry at himslef for telling this man so much.

Fury's face was the same as Jack had seen it last, still in it's poker position. But, he did step aside, a silent message that he was now allowed to retrieve his staff. Jack ran forward toward the starteld looking man and approached hastily.

He snatched it out of the agents hand and crouched over it, hugging it to my chest like he had previously seen mothers do with their children. Jack felt my energy return, and floated a few feet off the ground to stretch out his aching limbs. When Jack was done Fury stared at him with his stoic expression, a hint of intrigue shining in his eye.

Jack scowled at him and lowered himself to the floor. "Well, Jack Frost, I've seen stranger things before. But, I would like to keep you here for observation. I want to find out more about you."

Jack opened my mouth to argue, but shut it again at Fury's no-nonsense expression, deciding to deepen his scowl again. He decided to save the arguing for when he had more answers. Suddenly, Jack was jolted out of his thoughts by a sudden memory. "Where is Steve?" he asked. Fury quirked an eyebrow at the bold boy in front of him. He decided to humor him. "He has been awake for days and, and has been asking to see you. Would you like to meet him?"

Jack gulped and nodded his head. He was more that ready to meet the first person who ever saw him.


	3. Chapter 3

Click click click. The only thing Jack could hear was the pronounced clicking of Fury's boots as they echoed throughout the wide hallway. He walked beside Fury as they passed a few agents that were loitering in the hallways, and every single one of them stared bug-eyed in Jack's direction. So now he had a whole Hellicarier full of people who could see him? His head was already spinning about the fact that the first person had seen him 70 years ago, and it felt like yesterday…

"Hey, um.. Fury..." Jack muttered.

Fury's pace didn't slow with his reply. "Yes, Mr. frost?"

"What's a Helicarrier and why is everyone on it staring at me, why can they see me?"

Fury sighed, and his pace slowed to a leisurely walk. Jack matched his steps. "The Helicarrier is an aircraft carrier specifically designed to be itself capable of independent powered flight in addition to the standard functions of aircraft carriers, is the world headquarters and signature capital ship of our agency. It is where a vast majority of our agents work and reside. It can also be used a ship of some sort"

Fury paused. He seemed to be thinking through his next words. "There has been a rumour going around for some time now that a strange being with white hair who can fly had been found frozen in the ice next to.. Steve. I suppose they saw you and concluded that you fit the bill."

Jack nodded to himself. He supposed that was a possibility.

"Kid, when you were laying there, I called in my top scientists and medical examiners in to take a look at you. Observe your condition, take notes, things like that. They thought I was joking! There was nothing there, they said! Well, I thought you had escaped and dropped everything to come see what the hell was going on. When I saw you lyin' in there the exact same way I'd left you, well, I almost whooped their asses. But, kid, they actually couldn't see you. So I had to convince grown men and women to believe that there was, in fact, a lil' white-haired kid layin' in there dozing peacefully. It took a bit, but eventually they saw you. What I really want to know, is why they didn't see you as soon as they walked in."

Jack just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really know. I thought I was a ghost until a few years before I crashed into the ice."

Fury watched the boy with wary eyes, wondering what the hell to do. The tired boy looked so bewildered under those ice blue eyes; he kept looking around at everything with a mix of curiosity and fear. Fury composed himself as they stopped at a door like every other door they had passed, except for the fact that this door had a small star at the very top right hand corner. Fury smiled. It was Coulson's idea. "I would like to discuss this later, Frost, if you are willing. But for the moment, we have arrived at our destination. This is Steve's chambers. I will leave you two to catch up. Simply knock on the door three times, Steve will be expecting you."

And with that, the master spy turned on his heel and walked off, leaving a nervous Winter Spirit standing there in the hallway, debating whether or not he should knock on the door. Is he really ready to meet the first person who ever saw him? Maybe Steve could have answers for how to get other people to see him! Having an entire Helicarrier full of people who didn't walk right through him was nice, but Jack wanted others to see him well. It'd be nice if the kids he played with in the snow actually saw Jack playing with them.

Jack Frost smiled at the thought. With renewed confidence, he straightened and knocked on the door, three times as Fury had directed. The door whooshed open, and Jack freaked out for a second, not being used to the alien technology. The hallway had been so quiet and the sudden noise had startled him, as well, which didn't help. It startled Jack so much, in fact, that he found himself high up, facing the door, sticking spider-like onto where the ceiling met the wall and breathing rapidly. The frost spirit nervously laughed at himself. He really needed to chill out. He was Jack Frost for god's sake!

Jack sheepishly floated down from the ceiling and walked across the hall, through the door and into a room. Looking around, Jack noticed that the room wasn't lavishly decorated as he had somehow thought it up to be. A curious white-haired boy noticed comfortable looking beige sofas facing towards a strange flat device with pictures flashing across the screen. He saw a small kitchen and twodoorways that lead to other rooms. But the most noticeable thing Jack saw was a clearly frustrated man, who must be Steve, banging on a thin black device about as long as my hand.

"Stupid remote." Jack heard him mutter.

He didn't seem to notice that Jack was standing there. Fury said he was expecting him, but now he wasn't so sure. Jack shuffled on his feet nervously, and cleared his throat. For a big man, Steve could get to his feet pretty damn quickly. He took on a defensive stance, legs slightly bent and eyes narrowed, staring in the direction of the intruder. If he had a weapon, he would probably point it.

His face changed as soon as he recognised that it was only Jack, from confused to eager, to sheepish. "Oh, hey there! You must be Jack Frost." He scratched the back of his head and looked at the ground. "I, ah, sorry about that. I'm not used to visitors yet."

Steve straightened, and composed himself. After a brief second of hesitation, he walked forward and offered his hand. "I'm Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, Hero, Golden Boy, I've heard it all."

Nervously, Jack took it, and the two made awkward eye contact. Jack decided to speak first. "So, you look pretty good for 90 years old. Besides the clothes and everything you look exactly the same as when I first saw you."

"Likewise Jack! I'm a super soldier, genetically enhanced to be stronger, faster smarter and better. At least that's what they told me. All it ever got me was washboard abs and a frozen ass."

Jack grinned. He liked Steve seemed to be the relatable kind of guy. And anyone who could relate to an immortal kid with ice powers and severe amnesia, of all people, was a person worth getting to know.

Steve stood awkwardly, and he looked at Jack like he was dying to ask him something. Jack grinned at him, sensing his discomfort, and said, "You probably have some questions for me, so ask away."

Steve looked relieved, and Jack's grin widened. "Why did you crash through my ship? How did you get there? How did you survive? I heard you woke up as soon as you were out of the ice! It took me weeks to wake up! Well, I mean you woke up after me, but that's probably because you hit your head real hard. I don't blame you. I mean, as soon as the ice was gone, you were up and about! How did you do that!?"

Jack's grin turned into a smirk, this would be fun to explain. Steve seemed confident in himself at the moment, but he was sure Steve would falter a bit when he tells him all about Jack Frost. "Well Steve, I was flying around the arctic, minding my own business, I was even trying to be productive and planned on expanding the ice flats, but that horrid of yours jet hit me head on and I crashed through your windscreen."

Jacks smirk faltered. His voice went quiet. He didn't really want to continue, but he felt like he owed the guy an explanation, so he continued. "We crashed. It was so hard and so rough I thought we'd been thrown from the jet. There was water everywhere, and I panicked. It's… It's my fault you were frozen. I panicked and froze all the water around us. But… I couldn't unfreeze us, and I blacked out. I woke up as soon someone broke the ice, as you know. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I'm kind of semi-immortal, so being frozen for that long really didn't matter too much."

Steve was obviously nothing like Fury. His mouth hung agape, his expression showed pure disbelief. He ran his hands through his hair, obviously trying to process as much as he could. Steve walked over and sat down on the sofa. He shook his head, straightening out his thoughts. "H-how. I d-don't..."

'_Alright_', Jack thought. '_Time to set him straight'_. He sat down next to Steve and cringed when he leaned away from Jack a little. "Steve, I can control the wind and snow, ice and frost. That's probably the reason I didn't freeze to death or anything. It was actually kinda cozy in there."

"No way! How come I've never heard of you before? Or seen you before? Wouldn't I have heard of you in the papers or something?"

Jack's eyebrows rose. "Would you believe me if I told you, that you were the first one to see me?"

The soldiers eyebrow's furrowed. "What do you mean? How?"

"Well, I've kind of flown around doing my own thing for a while now. Three hundred years, in fact." Jack's chest puffed out in pride as he went on. "Nobody's really seen me, believe me, I've tried everything, but whether I'm sitting on their shoulders or tapping them of the nose, they don't take notice. They might sneeze, though." Jack frowned.

Steve took a minute to process this. "Ca-Can I see?" He stuttered, obviously referring to his powers Jack had previously mentioned. Jack grinned. He was more than happy to show him what he could do! The boy thought for a moment, tapping his staff against his hands, and his grin broadened. A classic was always the best way to go. Standing up, Jack Frost lightly touched the tip of his decorated staff onto the sofa cushion. As expected, frosted spirals grew from where the twisted wooden staff made contact.

Jack thought it wasn't possible, but Steve's eyes got bigger. "So that's what it does" Jack heard him mutter. At that moment, the frost spirit felt so proud of himself. He had seen people gape in wonder in what he and created. But they never saw him. Never acknowledged him. Jack was always sitting there waiting, hoping, _praying_ that they would turn their head and notice a white-haired boy in the tree, but they never did.

But now, now he had someone who saw him! Saw that he had created these beautiful patterns. He watched proudly as Steve lightly traced his finger over the frosted patterns. And for a brief moment, Jack was so happy; he could've bounced off of the walls a couple of times. But, being the incarnation of Winter, he kept his cool.

While Steve was occupied with cushion Frost, Jack rose into the air, and crouched on top the strange flat device he'd noticed earlier. It was still playing various flashing pictures over and over again. Jack bent his head down to look at it. "What's this?" he asked.

Steve jumped, shattering the frost on the cushion. He looked at the shattered mess wide eyed, and looked really guilty. 'Ah, I'm really sorry about that."

"Don't be." Jack said

He shrugged and gave Jack a quizzical look. "How are you doing that?" Steve asked.

Jack grinned, flying off the device and onto the floor. "I use the wind for balance. It what helps me fly, it also helps me balance. I could balance on Fury's head if I was game enough."

Steve chuckled at this, and walked over to Jack. The two stood there for a second, before Jack said something that had been on his mind. "Hey, um Steve... I uh, I just wanted to say, I….-I'm really sorry for what happened. You know with the ice... I didn't mean to freeze you or anything.. I was just so scared and -"

"Jack, you don't have to explain anything to me. Actually, you saved my life. If it wasn't for you I would've drowned or slowly froze to death. The ice froze both of us instantly, so we both survived."

Jack didn't know what to say. Did Steve just thank him for freezing him in the ice for almost 70 years? Him, _Jack Frost, _actually saved someone's life?

Jack had tried to save people before, when that huge boat sank, and all of those people were screaming, he had tried pulling them up to safety but his arm went right through them. All Jack ever ended up doing was making the water colder. He didn't sleep for almost a year after that night. Jack had sat with lost mountain hikers on cold nights and watched them slowly freeze to death right before his eyes, and all he could do was make imprints in the snow in the morning so rescuers could find their bodies. But Jack had saved someone this one time. He had done something right.

A voice echoed through the room and they both jumped. Jack hadn't heard what it had said but Steve's face faltered. He extended his hand towards the strange boy once more and Jack took it confidently, but still wary of the voice that came from the strange device in the corner of the room. "It's was good to finally meet you, Jack. You saved my life, and for that, I will always be grateful to you. And, well, it looks like you're the first friend I've made since I've woken up."

Jack's face split into a delighted grin. He had never had a friend before. Well, a friend that wasn't the wind. "Same here, Steve!" Jack replied. Steve's face turned serious. "Directory Fury is expecting you; he will be waiting at the door."

"It really was good to meet you Steve! I'll um, see you later. Bye!"

Jack treaded through the living room and out the door, listening to Steve struggling with the long black thing again, and almost ran straight into Fury. "Jack Frost. How was your chat with Rogers?" He asked. Jack was confused for a second, before he remembered that Rogers was Steve's last name.

'It was actually pretty good. Steve's a relatable guy."

"Do you remember our conversation from earlier?" He asked.

Jack nodded his head.

"Good. I would like to ask you a few questions then."

"Fire away."

Fury started walking down the hall, and Jack followed.

"You have all of these powers, and by the sounds of it, you know how to use them. But have you ever tested your limits? Ever seen how far you can really push yourself? How powerful you really are?

Jack shook his head. He was always too busy either running away from his problems, or searching for answers.

"Have you ever been trained by anyone Mr. Frost?"

The boy shook his head again, his bouncy white curls falling into his eyes. "You were the first real person in the world to ever talk to me, and one of the first to ever actually see me. Why do you ask?

"I thought so. Mr. Frost, would you ever consider staying on the Helicarrier for a while and training with us? We want to find out more about you, and what you can do. I promise you, if you stay and train with us, I will assign a top team of experts who will do everything in your power to help you."

Jack gasped. "With what, exactly?" He asked, hardly believing what he was hearing.

Fury's face was calm. "Look, kid. You obviously have something going on. Whatever that is, therapists, therapy, we'll give it to you"

"I want to remember who I was. Could you find out about my past or who I was? Friends? Family? Anything?"

Fury eyed him warily. "Just how far back are we lookin' kid?"

'Um, three hundred years, give or take?"

Fury didn't say a word. "Damn. That would explain a lot." He muttered. "Well, you've got yourself a deal. If you agree, I'll get my agents right onto it."

Jack knew he needed to think this through more. Here he was, surrounded by an entire aircraft full of people who called all can see him. That know he existed. He even had a friend here, someone's life who he had saved. Here was a man, offering Jack help discovering more about himself and about his powers. Fury was offering to train him, and all he gets out of it was finding out more about Jack.

But what if Jack decided he didn't want to stay? Where would he go this time? Would he ever see Steve again? Jack seriously doubted that this was one of those things where he could just come back later. But what about his freedom? Would he be able to get out once in a while. Jack couldn't stand being trapped indoors for too long.

"Would I be able to leave and go flying?"

Fury seemed to consider this.

"As long as you discuss it with me first, and wear a tracking device at all times, I don't see what the problem is."

Jack's face broke into a grin. He made his choice, and offered his hand out. Fury shook it.

"You've got yourself a deal."

* * *

A/N - So, a little more backstory for Jack in this chapter. I would like to thank Auua Ytjoml, Kimori, Sora Mota, tksskm, Maximus Potter, chaos007, Winsofdreams, Shi Uzumaki-Namikaze, FanndisLokidottir, AnimeHuntress, Jesusfreak124, and Kazaru13 for following and reviewing! Special thanks to the people who reveiwed, I am new to this, so its strongly encouraged! If you spot a mistake, or think something can be improved, be sure to let me know! Jack's always been a mischevious person, and I want to add some humor to the story, and any suggestions are apprectiated. I've already got an idea for when Jack decides to explore the Helicarrier.

Brenne: Thank-you so much! You certainly just made my day! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Crossover Junkie - Thank-you for your reveiw! i didnt notice the whole 'I' thing, but re-reading it, its really obvious. I had already written this chapter, so please bear with me, it will be something I will most definateley improve in the next chapter!

Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

Fury worked quickly. As soon as he had his answer he used his little radio to say something to people Jack honestly didn't care for at the moment. Right now, he was content, and didn't feel like talking or saying a damn thing, if you wanted to get something out of him, nice try, but you'd have better luck getting answers from his staff.

Jack was trying figure out what he would say to people if they asked who he was. _'His name's Jack Frost, he controls the ice and wind, stay out of his way_.' Yes, he thought a hard ass attitude will work quite nicely around here.

He also wanted to fit in, but he thought the whole social scene can wait awhile. Jack was used to being alone, used to being invisible, and hated when the people he passed ogled at him. Yeah, he'll stick to Steve and Fury for now.

Jack wondered what his training would be like? He has sat on top of the roofs of army building, watching as they soldiers performed various exercises as a man up front yelled at them. He could never stay long, all the yelling gave him a headache. Sometimes, Jack dropped by later in the day, and created a snowstorm for the tired soldiers, so their training would be cut off early. It was one of the times where he felt somewhat useful.

Would he be training with other people? Could he train with Steve? That'd be pretty cool. Jack knew that Steve's trained in the army, so Jack would be living in Steve's shadow if he trained with him. How would the Spirit's ice powers be used in training? He pondered on the thought until someone in front of him cleared their throat.

Jack looked up, plastering a bored expression to his face. Yep, the hard ass thing was starting now. He jumped a little when he realised it wasn't Fury, but a woman with brown hair pulled back into a bun and a no-nonsense poker face.

"Jack Frost? Come with me please, I'll show you to your chambers." She turned on her heel and strut down the hallway, expecting him to follow. _"Wow, I need to take notes if I want to be as hard ass as her."_ Jack thought. Sure, she was polite, but the boy knew immediately not to mess with her. Would all of the agents be like this?

Clearing his head, Jack realised that she was almost out of sight. He sprinted to catch up. Wow, she was fast. Looking around, Jack thought that he'd lost her when she turned the next corner, but took a leap of faith and decided that running wasn't going to cut it. So he jumped into the air and flew after her.

She looked over her shoulder at the quiet boy and a flash of surprise crossed her features before they solidified again. She knew he could fly, Fury had told her that much, but Maria Hill wasn't expecting to turn her head and see a scowling teenager flying after her. The starled woman turned her head turned forward once more. Jack Frost smirked, although the surprise he saw was brief, he thought it was hilarious he had startled her.

She stopped abruptly in the hall and Jack flew right past her. Scowling, he turned around and landed next to her. Jack noticed a smug smile tugging at her lips. His scowl deepened. "Mr. Frost, these are your chambers. Please press your thumb onto this."

She pointed at a small machine next to the door, which had a small black pad on it. Cautiosly, he stepped forward and pressed his thumb onto the device. He gave a small shout of surprise when the damn thing zapped him.

"Good." the woman said. She fiddled around with a small device by the door for a minute before turning towards me. "Mr. Frost, this will allow you to access your room. Just press your thumb on the scanner and the door will open. It recognises your thumbprint and opens the door. You will be alerted is there is anyone at the door. And don't worry, it won't zap you again." She said, a smirk now evident on her face.

"Will there be anything else?" She asked.

Jack narrowed my eyes. He got the feeling she was treating him like a child.

"No, thanks, I think I'll be fine."

Jack hadn't even finished his sentence before she turned and strutted off. Jack would have to watch out for her in the future. Sighing, he cautiously pressed his clammy thumb onto the device and was greatly relieved when the door whooshed open. Taking eager steps into his new living areas, Jack was awed the furnishings. _Everything_ was decorated in winter white and frosted blue.

The walls were a sparkling shade of white, that reminded him of freshly fallen snow, the two comfortable looking sofas were a vibrant blue, similar to that of frozen sea ice. The were set up just as Steve's were, with one facing the strange flat thing, and the other to the right of it, forming a 90 degree angle. The carpeted floor was white as, and there was a shaggy rug that matched the colour of the sofas. Jack wandered over to the pristine kitchen.

The benchtops was the same ice-blue as the sofas, but were semi-translucent, making them look like real ice. White cupboards lined up underneath them. Jack opened some of the cupboards to find them stocked with food he wouldn't eat. He really didn't eat much, but could eat a lot before getting full. Jack ate when he wanted to, not when I needed to. This food looked strange, and he made a mental note to ask Fury about it tomorrow. The setup was exactly the same as Steve's, just different colours.

Jack wandered through the two rooms, discovering a sparkling bathroom, and a bedroom, all perfectly matched with the colours in the living room. The bathroom was full of more confusing things Jack needed to ask about. The bedroom contained a King-sized bed, that was coloured ice-blue. The only thing it went with was the warbdrobe, which he thought really wasn't necessary. His hood and trousers had served him well for more than a century. The rest of the room was white.

There were a few strange machines, most of them residing in the kitchen. Why was he so uncomfortable? Everything was so nice, and well decorated, Jack felt so spoilt, but something was missing. He almost snapped his fingers when he realised what it was. It was hot in here! And Jack knew just what to do about it.

Flying back into the living room, he examined at the walls. Would Fury mind if he iced them up a bit? Jack decided that he was going to take a chance. Walking over to the far wall, he lightly touched his aged staff to it and frost climbed it's sides. Jack gave it a boost of energy to speed it up so he wasn't there for too long, and smiled in satisfaction. The wall looked like it was covered in some kind of bizarre wallpaper!

Grinning, the exuberent spirit went through all of his rooms, coating the walls in ice. It took only a few minutes, and when Jack was done he stepped back and admired what he had done, smiling proudly. It truly was a masterpiece. He just hoped Fury felt the same way. Jack sighed. He wasn't sure if he liked Fury or not. The man had been nothing but helpful, and Jack was sure that he had something to do with the colour scheme. But what if Jack had said no to his offer? What if he had wanted to get the hell out of there and take off? Would Fury had let him? Fury didn't seem like the kind of person who would do that. He was nice and all, but he seemed like the kind of person who had to know everything, be on top of everything. Jack shuddered at the thought. All that responsibility couldn't be good for a person.

There was a knock at the door. Three knocks, to be precise. Jack was startled. It too wasn't late, but it wasn't early either. Who could be knocking at his door? It must've been Fury. Jack flew over and landed into front of the door. He wasn't exactly sure how to open it for a few seconds, but was relieved to find a replica of the machine outside of my door sitting just to the left a little bit.

Jack pressed my thumb onto it, still wary of being zapped, and the door whooshed open. Fury stood there, his hands behind his back. "Frost," he said looking around the room, "I like what you've done with the place. Though a bit too cold for my liking. Not that I mind the ice, but I think I'll send someone over to explain all of the appliances you have, especially the air-conditioning. For now, I hope you've settled in. You need to get a good nights rest, because training starts tomorrow. Feel free to explore the Helicarrier, if you get lost, just shout. There is an agent at every corner who would be happy to help you find your way around. There is an alarm clock on your bedside table that will wake you up in time for breakfast tomorrow morning. Steve will be waiting outside your door to accompany you. There is also a variety training suits in your wardrobe. You are free to wear whatever you want, but this suit is exclusively for training. Be sure to be dressed and ready to start tomorrow. Do you have any questions?"

Jack was about to shake his head, but a thought sprang the his attention.

"What year is it?" He questioned

Fury looked vauguely surprised at his question, but recovered quickly. "It's 2012."

Jack was stunned by Fury's answer. He had presumed it to be 2016 at least. If it was 2012... that-that means..

"What season is it?" Jack pressed urgently.

"Autumn."

Jack gasped. He-he woke up in in the middle of _Winter_ in Burgess 300 years ago. Well, a little _less_ that 300 years ago. This means he'd be awake for his 300th birthday! Jack was ecstatic. He never celebrated birthdays very much, but turning 300 was something to be excited about.

Fury saw excitement and confusion flash across the boy's features. He decided not to question it. Seeing that the conversation was done, Fury decided he had other things to do.

"That's all. Good night, Mr. Frost." With that, he turned to his right and left, his black trench coat flapping behind him.

Besides his upcoming birthday, Jack was intrigued about what Fury said about exploring, but scowled at the thought of getting lost. Jack will find his own way back, even if he did get lost. He didn't want another snooty agent disapproving and talking to him like he was some kind of kid. He huffed, and walked out the door.

Deep in thought, Jack wandered down the hallways, leaving minuscule patches of frost on the wall, so he was able to find my way back. There wasn't much to see, unless he actually went into the rooms. Jack heard a small explosion once and jumped so high he almost hit his head on the roof. There was a lot of shouting before it went quiet again.

Turning down another hallway, Jack noticed a strong wind current. He felt the wind tug on his hood and ruffle his snowy hair. Where was it coming from? Jack looked around, confused until he noticed a hole in the wall with a metal hatch covering it.

He decided that he needed to check it out. The hatch wasn't easy to remove, but after 10 minutes of persistence, and a strange look from a passing agent, Jack managed to pry it open. It wasn't big enough to stand upright in, but had was spacious enough that he could comfortably call through on his hands and knees, and carry his staff. there was more than enough room above his head to look up, and plenty of room on either side of me to stretch my arms out.

This route was much more interesting. The grates showed into the rooms, and Jack was excited to finally see what everybody was doing behind those damn doors. Most of the rooms were full of strange equipment, and people in white coats. He passed the room where the explosion must've went off. It was like the other rooms, except there was glass all over the floor and smoke wisping from the spot it must've exploded from. Jack sniggered at the sight of a tiny woman yelling at cowering men, who looked like kids who have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. The times had changed, and Jack liked it.

The curious spirit continued his crawl through the metal tunnels, stopping occasionally to observe something interesting. He even saw Steve, in a space filled with more things Jack didn't understand. Steve was hitting something over and over again, and by the sheen of sweat covering his forehead, he looked like he had been at it a while. Jack wanted to talk to him, but thought it'd be kinda weird if he stuck out of a hatch in the wall to say hello. So he ventured on, when Jack saw something that made him come to a complete stop.

There was something else in here with him. Jack saw it crawling through the tunnel ahead of him, coming straight forward. Jack began backing up. It had definitely seen him now, and it didn't look friendly. It looked like another person, but the frightened boy couldn't be sure. Jack was still backing up, faster now. He saw the grate where Steve's room was, and made a choice. He needed to get out of here, and quickly before the thing got any closer. Turning his body 90 degrees, Jack placed his feet on the hatch and kicked with all the force he could muster. The thing got closer. It was probably only about 30 feet away now. Jack kicked again, desperate to get the hell out of there, and realised that Steve had come over to investigate the noise.

He peered into the hatch. "Jack?" He asked incredulously.

The thing was closing in. It was definitely a person, but he didn't look too happy. "Steve! Get the hatch off! NOW!" Steve heard the desperation and terror mixed in with Jack's demand and worked quickly.

The thing was only 15 feet away now. Luckily, Steve was a hell of a lot stronger than the average human. He ripped the hatched out of the wall and Jack hastily slid out, pulling his staff through as he went. As soon as he was in open air, Jack flew up, crouching in the corner of the the roof. It wasn't long before the thing burst out after him. So, it was a person after all. It was a man, and he looked pissed. He didn't tumble out, like Jack had expected, but slid out smoothly, head first, and performed a small roll before jumping to his feet.

"Where's the kid, Roger's."

It wasn't a question, more so a demand.

Steve was obviously confused. The dazed expression on his face gave it away. Luckily though, he recovered just in time to answer. And his answer made Jack smirk.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Clint."

Clint rolled his eyes and took a step forward. "Don-" he was cut off when he slipped on an anonymous patch of ice. Whoops! How'd that get there?

Clint let out a small cry as he fell on his ass. Steve's eyes widened at Clint's sudden actions, before he noticed the patch of ice and doubled over with laughter as he made the connection, slapping his knee. I grinned, but it when Clint hastily jumped to his feet, a scowl evident on his face.

"You think this is funny Frost-boy? I know all about you! What I want to know, is why the hell you were in my air vents."

Jack flew down, standing his staff upright, and perched on top of it. "Air vents? Is that what they're called?" he asked innocently.

Clint whipped his head in Jack's direction. His scowl deepened when he noticed that Jack Frost was a kid in blue performing a balancing act on his little stick.

"You know, being all big and scary and chasing someone through an air-vent isn't the best way to introduce yourself."

Clint's scowl lessened, and he looked somewhat apologetic.

"You were in my vents kid, it's not everyday that I find visitors in there. Let alone an immortal being that can fly, freeze things and apparently has perfect balance." He said dryly. "We're you lost or something?"

"No! I wasn't lost." Jack said defensively. "I was just looking around. I have my reasons for being in there, but what was a grown man, like your self, doing crawling through air vents?"

"I'm a master spy kid, it's what I do. I find that crawling through the vents is a perfect way to see what happening around me without being noticed. Nothing happens around here without me knowing about it." He took a step forward and stuck his hand out in front of him. "Clint Barton, Master spy, and I forgot to mention, Master Assassin. Pleasure meeting you."

Jack took his hand warily. "Jack Frost, uh, Immortal bringer of Winter." Jack had been working on his intro for a while and was proud that he could finally use it.

"Immortal bringer of Winter eh? I think it needs some work, but keep trying. I gotta go, I have somewhere to be, but if your gonna crawl through the vents again, try to stay out of my way? Ok?" And with that, he turned and left. Jack narrowed his icy blue eyes. He didn't think that he would get along well with this guy. Clint seemed to be sending Jack a silent challenge when he spoke, and If there's one thing Jack know about himself, it's that he's stubborn to the final degree, and won't back down from a challenge.

Jack wanted to go back to his room. He's been tired ever since he woke up, so he thought it was about time for one of his rare sleeping sessions. Though Jack stayed and chatted with Steve for a bit, they both said goodnight and went their separate ways. Thanks to Jack's frost marks, or rather, puddles in the floor, he made his way back to his room without complication.

He noticed that the room was much colder, and a large long white thing mounted on top of the wall above the flat device was humming and blowing cold air through the air. It was fantastic. Jack wanted to look at his training uniforms before he went to bed, but was way too tired. Flopping down onto the mattress of the soft bed, Jack let his eyes drift shut, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

* * *

**A/N - I KNOW! I CHANGED IT TO 3RD PERSON. *hides behind keyboard* I am so sorry to those who might not enjoy the change, but 1st person just wasn't working for the story. I'm not that good of a writer to use it effectively. At least this way you get to hear from more people points of view, right? I also changed a few key elements of the story. Re-read chapter 2 and you'll find an account from Fury, and if you look closely at chapter 3, you'll notice Jack had the hard-ass attitude to begin with. He DOES NOT, reapeat, DOES NOT open up, to Fury, only telling him the basics. I am so sorry for all these changes. I promise that I'll get the story on track and stop changing everything so much! **

**I would like to thank the people who reviewed, giving an extra huge, from the bottom of my heart thank you to Auua Ytjoml for providing me with amazing ideas and criticism. I'd honeslty be lost without them! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I sure enjoyed writing it! Did you like Clint and Jack's meeting? (btw, the story is set before the whole Loki claims the Tesseract and takes control of Clint kind of thing) I think you'll see more of Jack's and Clint's friendly rivalry! I've got big plans for this story, so hold tight, bear with me and review! Please review! I love hearing all your ideas and comments for the story! Let me know how I can improve!**


	5. Chapter 5

Jack Frost lay clutching his staff, face-down in the soft, cold mattress, enjoying himself within the recesses of his dream. He was actually enjoying his sleep until a freezing bucket of cold water was poured directly onto his bed head. Not that Jack minded the temperature of the water, it was more the surprise of being wet that really bothered him.

Jack flew from the soaked mattress, flying up to the ceiling, pulling half of the blanket with him as he went. Jack held his staff out in front of his body, ready to defend himself. A very smug Clint Barton stood with his head tilted upwards, smirking at a frantic Jack from his position on the ground.

Jack was mad, to say the least. Before Agent Barton could blink, Jack swung his staff towards Clint, sending out a wave of ice. Clint had ducked, thinking that Jack was actually going to hit him with that staff. He didn't hear anything though, didn't hear the whoosh of the staff missing it's target above his head. What he did head was the sound of laughter. He also felt cold, Really cold.

Clint tried to stand up but found he was physically unable. Shocked, Clint could only gape at what he saw. His entire lower half was frozen into a crouch position. Not frozen as in paralysed, he was literally frozen. In ice.

Steve chose that moment to run into the room, confused and wary, not at all aware of what he just happened. Though, upon seeing a laughing Jack and a wild-eyed Clint, he couldn't help but laugh. The soldier had never seen the master assassin so vulnerable before! "Clint!" He gasped through his laughter, "You haven't been having much luck with ice these past few days!"

Jack, feeling daring, landed on top of Clint's head, as Clint violently swat at his with his arms, the only two limbs that were free from the icy grip. Jack bent his head down and grinned at the scowling assassin. "Next time you walk into my room uninvited, I'll freeze you to the outside of the Helicarrier."

Jack jumped off of Clint's head and strutted over to Steve. "Very funny Jack Frost, now unfreeze me."

Jack's grin only broadened. "I can't do that. I can freeze things, not unfreeze them."

"Well that's pretty pathetic." Clint spat. "I thought you could control ice, and doesn't controlling ice men melting it as well?"

"How da-" Jack's was cut off.

"I'll do it." Steve offered half-heartedly.

Clint only scowled. The ice was already beginning to crack from around his waist due to his frantic struggling, and the majority of Jacks ice was soon removed with Steve's assistance. Clint kicked the rest of the ice that was clinging to his boot off, muttering to himself.

"Well played, Frost. I'll see you in training." Clint smirked. "Be ready to get your ass kicked." Clint stomped out of the room. When Jack heard the door whoosh closed, he turned to Steve.

"Do you know what the hell just happened, Steve?" Jack asked incredulously.

Steve looked rather embarrassed.

"Well, uh, this whole thing is kinda my fault."

Jack quirked an eyebrow at the soldiers admission. How could Steve have played in part whatsoever in this?

"How so?" Jack questioned.

Steve looked at his feet, embarrassment clear in his body language. "Well, ah, I was waiting in my room, still trying to figure out how to work the Television, and I got sick of it. So I went to see what you were up to. I knocked on the door and was waiting for an answer when Clint came past."

Jack nodded at for Steve to go on, although he was still utterly confused as to where the story was going.

"Clint thought that you were late so he went in there with a bucket to go and get you. I guess his wake up methods weren't exactly, ah, conventional."

Jack nodded as he finally understood Steve's story.

"So, this things is one part a misunderstanding, and two parts Clint being an ass?"

Steve grinned. "Yep, you've got it. I am really sorry though." The captain did look really guilty.

"You don't have to apologise, Steve. Oh, and what's a television, by the way?"

"It's that thing you were standing on in my room."

"The flat thing with the pictures on it?"

"Yeah, they show you what's going on in the world, and heaps of other things people find interesting. We had them back in the day, but they were black and white, and different shapes too. Now they have all these things that you need to work it, and it's just not worth the effort."

Jack pondered over the idea of a thing that shows you recorded events of what happens in the world. How did these things get on there in the first place? It was a confusing concept Jack really didn't want to think too much about. His brain hurt already.

"Things are so different now! I never had trouble keeping up with what people around the world were doing before, but this is going to a... different kind of experience. I guess being out of action for so long will do that to you, eh?" Jack said to a nodding Captain. Steve knew exactly where his friend was coming from. It was good to have someone to relate to.

A blaring sound made the two nearly jump out of their skin. Jack was already in the air, staff raised towards the directing the offender was sounding from. He was confused as to why the White device beside his bed was making that obnoxious beeping noise, but quickly realised it was his alarm.

Jack landed softly on the ground with a sheepish expression. "I guess it's time for me to get ready." Jack sighed. Steve nodded, and turned around to walk out the door, closing the door behind him. Whistling to himself, Jack strolled over to his wardrobe. He was in a good mood, despite his rude awakening.

Apparently Fury had been joking when he said there was a variety of suits. There were four black suits that looked to be made from leather. They had long sleeves, and long legs, and looked very tight. They also had a choking neckline. All in all, it looked like Jack would seriously consider taking a knife to them and tearing it up. But, Jack had made a deal, and if Fury had told him to wear these for training, it was probably for a reason.

Jack looked down at his beloved hoodie. He had only acquired that a short time before he had been frozen. He remembered flying over a running track, watching as the people tried to outrun each other before they reached the finish line. After a tense couple of minutes, an over enthusiastic man came first, howling at his victory. Jack followed him to see why everybody was crowded around the man, when the winner took his hood off and dumped it on the ground before covering himself in water. Jack had been admiring it for a while, and was disgusted it was being treated so badly. So, he took it. He felt a little guilty afterwards, but when he discovered the freedom and comfortability of the clothing, his guilt was forgotten. Not soon after, he had learned it was called a hood shirt. He called it hood for short.

With a sigh, Jack stripped down to the bare essentials, making sure to take special care laying his old appearance out on the messy bed. The suit was tricky to get into. The leather kept sticking to his skin, and Jack ended up having to apply a thin layer of ice over his body so he could easily slip into it.

After finishing is struggle, Jack donned the heavy boots and fingerless gloves with little complication. The suit was surprisingly comfortable. Jack didn't even feel where the fabric settled against his neck! The only thing he didn't like was the colour. It was all black, and black had never been a colour Jack had been too fond of. Black was the colour of darkness, and darkness had always been Jack's weak point.

He had often raced to the other side of the world, keeping up with the sun. Shortly before he had been frozen though, Jack had stayed back a while to talk with the moon. Not that it ever talked back of course, but Jack had been desperate for answers. Lately he had been questioning himself, and everything he did. Would he ever get it right? What if he was never seen by anything. Was he destined to roam the earth as a ghost for the rest of his life? It had been dark days for Jack.

Clearing his thoughts, Jack decided he would talk to Fury about the colour when he got the chance.

Steve waited patiently in the living room for Jack to get ready. He could hear the poor kid struggling with the suit,and cringed internally, Not that he'd ever admit it, but his first time in the Captain America suit was achieved by hard work, sheer perseverance, and maybe a little help. It wasn't a fun day for Steve Rogers.

A few minutes after the struggling noises stopped, Jack shuffled out of the room. He was walking awkwardly in the boots, and seemed to be having trouble keeping his balance. Steve raised and eyebrow at the poor kid, silent asking for an explanation.

"I've never worn shoes before." Jack muttered, his face turning beet red as he sat down on the sofa and fiddled with the laces.

Steve cringed at the kid. His day hadn't started well and it only seemed to be getting worse.

"Do you need help?" Steve offered

Jack didn't say anything, but he nodded his head, his damp hair flopping to the side.

Steve knelt down and started untangling the laces of the SHIELD issued boots. Jack refused to look at Steve, his pale face flushed an embarrassed shade of red. Steve tried to break the silence by asking that if Jack had never worn shoes before, how did he know to put them on?

"I've watched people do it. It's how I learned to do a lot of things, by watching people." Steve nodded. He couldn't exactly relate to Jack, but he understood.

With one final pull, and a grimace from Jack, Steve finished tying Jack's laces on his boots, and stood up. Jack stood up, quickly, his face still red from the incident. Steve felt really bad for the kid, so he tried to say something that would Cher him up.

"I, uh, see you got you uniform on. I've never tried one of the SHIELD suits on, but I know that my Captain America suit was never easy. The first couple of time, I actually needed, ah, assistance. So don't feel bad about your shoes, if you want, I'll teach you how to tie the laces yourself."

Jack looked up and a timid smile came to his face. "Yeah, that'd be great, uh, thanks for... You know.."

Steve nodded and checked his watch. "Well, we're both ready, so let's go and get breakfast."

Jack and Steve walked out the the door. Well, Jack floated out. He still found it hard to walk with the boots on. Although he was embarrassed, he was grateful it was Steve that helped him out. The Winter boy cringed at the thought of having to ask Fury for help. He had no idea how that would go down.

So golden soldier and Winter spirit walked and floated down the winding hallways of the Helicarrier, idly chatting to each other. Jack was telling some stories of his adventures around the world, at Steve's request. Jack was still reluctant to tell Steve about his lonesome past, but enjoyed telling him of his travels.

Jack told him of how he had saved a lost child from a mountain cat, by freezing it solid in the middle of the forest. The little girl was terrified, and Jack watched over her until she found her way back to her distraught parents, who cried and hugged her through her wild rebelling of her story.

Another thing Jack told Steve was his newly discovered upcoming birthday. Steve was confused at first, but Jack explained that he had the year wrong when he made age his estimate, and that he woke up in the in the middle of Winter in 1712.

"How far into fall are we?

"Uh, it's October, so it's late. And if you, ah, woke up in the middle of Winter, that means you turn 300 on the 16th of December!" Steve answered.

Jack was awestruck. Once again, Steve had done something to help him, and didn't ask anything in return.

"I-I've never known the actual date of my birthday before. I just kinda stayed in Burgess for a few days and celebrated when it was the coldest day of Winter. Which isn't accurate, I know, but it's the only measurement of date I really had. I always somehow managed to keep track of the year, though. Th-Thank-you"

Steve looked shocked for a moment, but his face soon melted into a happy smile. "No problem Jack, I'm always here if you need help. Just ask, ok? Now let's get to breakfast so Fury doesn't bust our asses for being late."

Jack grinned. He had never had a real friend before, but he was sure glad he had someone as kind and as relatable as the soldier. The pair must've been getting close to the breakfast room, because they could hear the muffled noise of chatter and scraping chairs.

Soon Jack and Steve arrived at their destination, and walked through the doors. The once noisy and boisterous room went silent. There wasn't a word spoken, a chair scraped or a plate clanged as all heads turned to Jack Frost. He noticed that he was wearing the same uniform as everyone else. Jack stood pinned to the spot and unable to move. Most of the stares were curious, or wary, but Jack did see a few harsh, judgemental looks being thrown his way.

Steve spoke up. "There's nothing to see here, everybody, back to your meals!"

The angry volume of Steve's voice made Jack jump. Steve didn't seem like the kind of person to yell, and Jack,wasn't sure he would ever get used to it.

A majority of the people in the room whipped their heads back around, seeming to find great interest in the food on their plates. Some of the more daring ones let their stare linger, before deciding to stuff their faces once more.

Steve held his head high as he walked around the tables and over to the buffet. He stayed close to him, trying to draw as little attention as possible, though he could feel them staring again. He kept his head down, just wanting to get it over with and get out of there. At the buffet, Steve piled his place high with bacon, scrambled eggs, fruit and anything else he could get his hands on. Jack didn't really need to eat, so he grabbed a crisp green apple when Steve was done and followed him to an empty table.

They settled down in table at the very back of the room, and Steve eyebrows shot up closer to his hairline when he took notice of Jack's small portioned breakfast. "Jack, you'll need to eat properly if you want to make it through training." Steve suggested.

Jack gave Steve a deadpan look.

"The last time I ate a proper meal was 84 years ago, and I feel fine. As long as I'm in the cold, I'm comfortable and healthy."

The boy knew Steve didn't understand, it was written all over his. He didn't expect him too though. How could someone understand that Jack simply doesn't eat?

Steve looked as though he wanted to ask someone questions, but politely kept his calm, instead choosing to shovel his mouth with food.

All in all, breakfast went ok. Jack finished his apple , choosing refrain from throwing at it one of the agents who couldn't seem to stop staring. Jack waiting patiently for Steve to finish, entertaining himself by twirling his staff, icing the other half of the table, and refreezing the melting ice underneath his suit.

It was getting hot inside the suit, so Jack found himself having to freeze the ice every 10 minutes. It wasn't hard, and Jack was beginning to do it unconsciously. When Jack did it the first time, Steve asked what the noise was, and Jack told him that it helped him get into the suit and helped him keep cool. Steve scoffed at this, saying he wishes he had that kind thing to help him out.

When Steve had gotten up and packed his dishes away, the duo walked out of the lunchroom and through the halls once more. Once they were out, Jack took to the air again, relieved he didn't have to walk. "I thought there would be more agents than that in the lunchroom." Jack commented. "I'm sure I saw more people than than when I crawled through the vents."

Steve laughed outright. "That was only one lunchroom, Jack. All in all, there are 17 on the Helicarrier. I picked the one I knew would have the least amount of people in it. You're the talk of the ship, you know. Everyone wanted to see who else woke up in the ice."

Jack grinned Steve's careful thinking. How did he know that Jack didn't like the attention? It felt really good to have a friend that helped him out, even if it was somewhat indirectly.

"So, Jack, are you ready for your first day of training?"

"You mean ready to get my ass kicked? Yeah, bring it on." Jack said dryly. He really couldn't feel optimistic when he was going to be versing a master assassin on his first day in SHIELD training.

Steve frowned at Jack's lack of enthusiasm. When they chatted in the gym, Jack's eyes had lit up at the idea. Now, as he floated down the hallway, he just looking like he want to be somewhere else.

Fury was waiting for them at the door. "Gentlemen, I assume you had a good breakfast? How was your first night, Jack?"

"Fine and dandy, the morning wasn't very appealing though. Could you keep the fire-brigade out of my room next time, please?"

Fury smirked. "I have advised Clint to stay away from your chambers. Follow me."

The three of them walked through the doors, which just looked like a bigger version of Jack's door. Jack was impressed to say the least. The room was huge, and it made Jack wonder just how big the Helicarrier was. Looking up, Jack could see an agent situated in a glass box, high above them.

"Jack Frost. I'm not going to dilly-dally, so I'll tell it to you straight. We have never done this sort of thing before. This program that we will train you in, is experimental. It is designed for younger trainees, and you are our first to test it out. We guarantee that you are safe in here, although you will be put through life-like training situations in order to push your abilities and strengthen your fighting strategies. You will train with other agents along and are expected to only attack when you are sparring. If you decide to hold a grudge, because you got your ass kicked, there will be severe consequences. Do you understand what I have just said?"

Jack gulped, and slowly nodded. He didn't mind that it was experimental, as long he was able to learn how to defend himself. Jack had a feeling that his powers weren't going to cut it anymore. Steve had wandered off midway through Fury's speech, so Jack stood alone. Not that he minded, of course. He knew Steve had other things to do.

"Good. Frost, I would like you to meet agent Phil Coulson. He will be overseeing your training."

A tall man, seemingly stepped and of nowhere and walked forward to shake Jack's hand. "It's good to finally meet you, Jack Frost! We will have to talk later, I want to know some more details about you, if that's alright with you?"

Jack just nodded.

"Good. Now, before we can begin, Fury has informed me of your abilities. Would you mind showing me an example of each of them?"

"Uh, yeah, that shouldn't be a problem." Jack said nervously.

"Ok, fly." Phil demanded. Jack blinked, a little taken aback, but soon rose into the air. Coulson walked around Jack, observing him.

"What does that do?" Coulson asked, pointing at Jack's staff.

"It uh, helps me fly, make frost and snow, and blast ice."

"I see. What can you do without it?"

"I can still make frost and a light snow, and hover, but that's about it. I can't create blizzards or fly very far without it."

"May I see it?" Coulson asked.

Jack landed back on the ground and hesitated. He had only just met this man, and really didn't want him to put his hands all over his staff. Jack wasn't even sure if he could hand it over to Steve, no matter how much he like him.

"Jack," a deep voice sounded. "Just do it, and he'll give it straight back. Nothing will happen to it." Fury reassured.

Reluctantly, Jack handed it over. Coulson took it and handled it delicately, inspecting all the twists and lines of the wood, and the light dusting of frost along its length. He tapped it against his hand, and handed it back to Jack. Jack refrained from snatching it off of him.

"Thanks Jack, I can see your attached to it. I would be too if I had something that cool!" Jack smiled, this man was trying to be friendly, and Jack really appreciated it.

Ok, now show me how you use your Frost power,"

Jack tapped the curved end of the wooden staff down onto the floor, and let the frost patterns spread along the ground. He stopped when they began to climb over Coulson's shoe.

"That's amazing! Could you possibly show me something bigger?"

Jack thought for a moment, and swung his staff to the left. Huge shards of ice longer longer than Jack and thicker than Steve's forearm formed under his swing, the deadly sharp points facing towards the left wall of the training room. There were about six of them in total. Coulson's mouth seemed to be hanging from it's hinges before he quickly composed himself and nodded.

"That was much better, beautiful and deadly all at the same time.

"Now-"

"Why do I need to do this?" Jack cut in

"We want to see what you can do, so we can plan ways to incorporate your powers into your upcoming training.

Jack 'ahh'd' at this. That was actually a very good idea.

"Ok, then, what next?"

Coulson grinned. "Well, you said that you control the wind and ice. We've already seen the ice, so let's see the wind!"

Jack was confused. When he said he controlled the wind he meant he used it to fly. But, what if he could use it for other things as well? Jack had never tried it before, but Fury had said training was about testing his limits, so he supposed he'd try.

Jack called the wind to him, and he rose into the air. But he could sense something in the wind. It was eager to please. Gusts of wind started whipping around Jack, teasing his hair. Jack focused his mind, calling the wind to all sides of him, willing it to spin around and around. Jack opened his eyes when someone shouted his name.

He saw Coulson and Fury scrambling about, trying to hold on to something as the wind attempted to lift the, off of his feet. 'Ok, time to stop,' Jack thought. The wind slowed but it didn't stop. Jack panicked and yelled this time. "STOP!"

The wind slowed down to a gentle breeze. An annoyed fury and a flustered Coulson stared at him as Jack lowered himself to the ground. "I'm really sorry about that, I've never actually done it before."

Fury recovered first. "What do you mean, Frost?."

"I told you I control the wind, but I meant I used it to fly. But I, uh, tried something different this time. I've never even thought of physically controlling the wind to do something like that."

Fury sighed. "Continue on, Coulson."

Shakily, Coulson walked over to Jack. "Please don't do that while we're in the room, Mr. Frost."

Jack nodded.

"Good. Is there anything else you haven't showed us?"

Jack was about to shake his head, but he remembered something. What about that strange new thing he had done when he blew on the snow. Suddenly, Jack got the urge to want to try it out again.

"Yes! I do have something else, but I'll need a volunteer. I promise it won't hurt them or anything, I just can't show you without someone else."

Both of the men hesitated. They did not want to do it. Coulson reached for his radio and muttered something into it. A few moments later, Clint walked into the room. Jack couldn't help but grin. Oh, yes, this would be perfect.

"You called for me?" Clint asked

"Yes," Coulson said. "Jack here needs someone to, uh, assist him with something. You fit the bill."

The archer hesitated for a second, before he strolled over to Jack, eyeing the shards of ice. "What do you need, Jacky Boy?" Clint asked, a cocky tone to his voice.

Jack took a few steps back. Both Coulson and Fury exchanged a worried look when they noticed something form in Jack's hand. Fury had his hand on his gun. Jack brought the snowball to his lips, and blew. It turned a bright blue, and almost glowed in his palm. Without warning, Jack pelted the snowball right at Clint's awaiting face.

"What the hell?!" Clint shouted, before his facial expression changed.

He let out a small laugh, but appeared to be trying to hold it back. He laughed again, but this time, it was full and rich. Grinning at what he had done, Jack took to the air, and the archer began to take chase. Jack created little piles of snow around the room, and Clint happily started throwing snowballs at the fun loving spirit. Jack threw them back, thoroughly enjoying himself. Clint aim was dead on, and only missed when Jack spontaneously leaped to the side, laughing as he went,

Fury and Coulson watched on with wide eyes, as this kid turned one of their best assassins into a 6 year old kid. They watched as Hawkeyes jumped and threw snowballs, and chased Jack around the room. Clint seemed to wear himself out after a few minutes, and sat down. Jack had doubled over in laughter, tears leaking out of his eyes. He was on his back, howling at what he had just seen.

Fury heard Coulson stifling giggles. This was unbelievable. Just who was this kid? Whatever he had just done, both of the men were extremely glad they hadn't volunteered.

Clint seemed to recover from his playtime, and he must've remembered what happened, because he stormed out of the room, unable to say a word, or account for his actions.

After the incident, Coulson calmed down a hysterical Jack and sat him down to go over some basic training manoeuvres. They tried some of them together but Jack kept stumbling all over the place. He asked Coulson if he could take his boots off, and Coulson agreed, because Jack didn't look very comfortable in them.

It did wonders for Jack's speed and agility, Coulson had to work hard just to even touch the kid. He had been trained by SHIELD for years, and was one of their top agents. They day wore on, and it turns out that although Jack was good, it took him a while to learn certain things. His offensive attacks were something that needed practice. He was great at defending himself, t couldn't seem to lay a finger on Coulson.

"We're done for the day, come back *puff* tommorrow so we can *puff* improve your offensive attacks."

Coulson walked away, leaving Jack alone with Fury and a question he'd been dying to ask all day.

"Fury, can I go flying?"

"I was prepared for this. Here, place this around your wrist, and don't take it off." Fury instructed as he placed a silver cuff on Jack's wrist.

"What's this?" Jack questioned.

"It's a tracking device, so we can know where you are at all times."

Jack wanted to argue, but he had agreed to it, and it didn't really matter, it wasn't like he was trying to run away or anything. "Come with me, I'll show you where you can leave. You're lucky, the Helicarrier isn't actually flying at the moment, it is floating, to be precise."

Jack nodded. He remembered something about the Helicarrier also being used as a ship.

The two walked for sometime in silence, Jack still barefoot and much more comfortable.

They walked out onto an absolutely nothing huge deck, it was so big, in fact, that there were planes and other strange machined coming and going from it.

"I know that you don't need the sleep, so if you want to stay out, be back at sunrise tomorrow, at the latest."

Jack grinned at him before he took to the sky.

* * *

**A/N Hey guys I know this is a bite later than usual but it is over 5000 words, so I hope that makes up for it. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, (I promised I will fix those mistakes) Please review, tell me where I've gone wrong, what I've done right, if you like the relationship between characters, what you want to see, make sure to tell me! **


	6. Chapter 6

He left soldiers, and training and responsibility behind him. He left his grudges and thoughts alone for a while, for the Winter Spirit was free once more. And boy, was he loving it. Nothing could compare to the crisp pre-winter wind tugging on his white-curls, begging him to play.

Jack couldn't refuse. He frolicked and jumped and laughed with the wind. He created little snow flurries around the place, and he explored the world. The world was so much more dirge rent than he remembered. There were strange looking cars everywhere, huge towering buildings made of glass and steel, and people everywhere. There were so many people!

Jack flew around the busy city having a blast. There was a short a moment where a figure blurred in red and blue swung past him. Jack thought it was strange, considering how high up among the towers he was, but blamed it on the thriving nightlife of the spontaneous city. It was a mad-house! There were just so many things going on, so much activity!

But after a few hours of fun, Mack thought of somewhere he had to be. No, needed to be. A place he hadn't visited in over visited in almost 70 years, and the only place he ever dared to call home.

It was so different now. His frozen lake was only half-frozen (which honestly, Jack had expected) and there were houses not a short distance away.. He saw children running around, waving sticks made of light and shouting out playful insults at each other. Why were they up so late? There were papers loitering in the grass, and a substantial lack of wildlife. Half of the ancient pine trees have been felled, and in their place were sad looking stumps. Everything Jack remembered was tainted.

He could've conjuring up a storm to stop the loggers, picked up the papers before it got out of hand, and kept the place healthy, and alive. The wind told him that this place was dying. It was tainted and feral, and he should've been there to take care of the only place he ever called home. Jack sighed miserably. Everything he ever knew was gone.

The White-haired spirit floated took one last look at the semi-frozen pond, only to see a small kid sitting by its shore. At first, Jack was angry. Why the hell was this kid here? Was he one of the ones that poisoned his home?

Jack flew in to investigate, only to see that the kid was peacefully reading a book by torchlight. Why wasn't he playing with the other kids? Was he alone? Jack decided that he must find out. He came up close to the young boy, who was scanning the pages with huge eyes filled with a child-like innocence.

The book was about mythical creatures, yetis, dwarves, fairies, Bigfoot, you name it, it was in there. The kid held a light to the pages of the book, hastily turning them when he was done. Jack chuckled at his antics, and watched the boy until he decided to pack up and go home. The spirit watched as the child picked up a few of the papers as he went, depositing them in a nearby trash in. Jack smiled happily. He would visit again, that was certain, but Jack felt safe in the knowledge that there was someone protecting his home, even if it was just a kid.

Jack Frost took to the sky, shouting at the wind to take him to a special place. It was magical and full of wonder, and it was a place Jack had been dying to visit ever since he got chased away so long ago.

The wind dropped him off exactly where he wanted to be. Not too far away, but not close either. Jack wanted to get a good look at the outside North's workshop before he found a way to sneak inside. Trying to be stealthy, he flew silently up to one of the windows. It was locked, of course. North is known for his carefulness and precision.

There was movement to his right, on what looked to be a small man-hole. The lid of it lifted, and a belled hat poked through, and soon one of the dimwitted elves popped the rest of itself through the opening. Jack was confused as to what it was doing, until it began to lick the not-so-freshly-fallen snow. Jack grimaced at the sight. Sure, he knew these things were as dumb as a post, but that was just disgusting.

Soon, the little thing scuttled off, jumping into another manhole a few yards away. Jack sat by it for a second, weighing up his options. Right now, if he was caught, he could escape with ease, flying away on the wind. But if he decided to squeeze in to one of the elf tunnels, he would have nowhere to go if he got into trouble. But, Jack's curiosity of the fabled workshop got the better of him, and he decided to take the risk.

Getting into the small hole was hard, but Jack was lean enough to be able to pull it off. Once he got in, it was fairly easy. There was enough room to crouch low on his hands and knees, with the tops of his thighs touching his chest as he moved through the winding tunnels. He saw a few interesting things, like bits of week-old cookies, broken plastic toys, and rusted old bells. All of which hurt when one got under his knee as he crawled.

After 10 minutes of painful crawling, the narrow space opened up into a small cavern which Jack could almost stand up in. At the moment, Jack had no concept of what was up or down, so he was confused and a just little bit dizzy.

Jack stood up, hit his head. What was it with him and his head? He grunted and focused himself. Where was he? The spirit stared into the dimly lit cavern, and saw a bright light up ahead. Relieved, he walked towards it, his hands on top of his head to keep it from hitting the ceiling again.

After a minute of walking, he arrived at the light, which was just a bigger version of the man-hole outside. Jack approached cautiously, and gingerly pushed the lid up. He was lucky that it was so light otherwise anyone outside would definitely of have heard him when he dropped it on his fingers.

Jack winced, swallowing down a string of curses as he pushed again, making a slit wide enough for him to see out of. As far as Jack could see, the coast was clear. There were no elves running about, no yetis yabbering on, and the big man himself was nowhere to be seen.

Jack pushed the lid of the hole aside and heaved himself through. He surveyed his surroundings, looking at all the things on the many shelves that lined the wall. There was a huge oak desk in front of a massive window that looked over a cliff into the snowy land, at the back of the room. The was a model train set to the left of a door.

Jack surveyed the door, and decided to ice it shut. He wanted to buy himself some time if anyone tried to get in. Content, the boy flew up to the highest shelf, and surveyed all the cool things that were there. There were old fossils, small trinkets and statues, and tiny boxes containing anonymous things that confused him.

He was midway through the third shelf, when Jack noticed something. There was a small dent in the wall, cleverly located behind a stack of uninteresting looking boxes. Jack picked them up, and placed them on top of the other boxes, keeping an eye on them to make sure they didn't topple over.

Cautiously, he pressed his finger into the dent in the wall. Nothing happened, but a click above. Jack looked up, there was another dent, but this one was shining an eerie blue. Jack wasn't sure a out pressing this one. It looked... sinister. Jack flipped his staff around, and pushed the lower end of it into the dent.

There was a ticking noise, that sounded like cogs moving together within the wall, and a square drawer about the length of his hand appeared out of the wall. Jack had no idea what to expect from the thing, but a secret drawer didn't surprise him. Of course the big man had some secrets. If Jack was around as long as he was he'd have things stashed all over the place.

The drawer opened to reveal a wooden box, about the length of his middle finger. It was covered in frosted patterns, not unlike his own. But there was also a golden plaque that said in curved writing: _Jokul Frosti_. Underneath that was a thinner plaque, that was longer than the first but had smaller writing, and it read: _'andi annask svell eða vindr'._

More curious than ever, Jack opened the box, and found a gorgeous sparkling blue statue of a man, only a little smaller than the box itself. He gently lifted it out of its velvet lined box and noticed that it depicted the figure with its two arms out in front of him, resting on the hilt of a sword, that was pointed into the ground. It was so intricate, in fact, that Jack could make out the swirling runes funning down the swords length.

The figure was also wearing a fluttering cape, that was billowing out behind him. It was covered in swirling ice patterns. His hair looked like it was being whipped around by the wind, but Jack could still that it was just past shoulder length. It's ears were ever so slightly pointed, as well. The face, though, was featureless, and was also pointed down. It was made out of the same sparkling blue stone that Jack had seen in the windows of jewellery stores.

It was beautiful and intricate. The spirit turned the figurine over in his hands, marvelling at the detail. He felt a strange connection to the thing, and the name definitely rung a bell. BANG! A sudden banging at the doors made Jack drop the delicate statue. He dove down and caught it just in time, though. The banging increased when whatever was on the other side realised that the doors wouldn't open. Jack was relieved he had put the ice there, otherwise he would've been caught, red handed.

Jack Frost put the figurine back in the box, fumbling with the golden latch. But the door in the wall had closed, and Jack didn't have the time to open it again. He crammed everything he just saw into his mental folder and pushed it away, labelling it: 'To think about later'. The ice was cracking, and his time was waning. Jack thought fast, and stuffed the box into a random pocket of his SHIELD suit, that looked to made for a gun. Jack put an extra layer of ice around it to make sure it didn't slip out. He didn't want to steal, but surely the big man wouldn't know it was missing? The boxes surrounding it were covered in a thick layer of dust, after all.

Jack flew towards the uncovered manhole, hastily pulling it over his head and freezing the sides to it would stay shut.

"Warbla rarda ra!"

The garbling of a yeti made Jack move much faster. More voices joined the cacophony as they entered the room. Jack needed to move faster, he wasn't going to accomplish anything at this speed! He started to fly through the tunnels, nimbly turning all the corners, but scratching up his shoulders as he did so. It was only a few minutes before he busted through the outside manhole.

Jack could hear the chaos now. The whole workshop was alive with noise. It was mostly the garbling of yetis but Jack did hear a few bells ringing as well. He was getting a fair distance away, now the workshop only looked like a few specs in the distance.

Jack didn't stop flying until he reached his lake. He was out of breath and frankly, very scared. His breath game in ragged gasps, that couldn't keep up with his pulse. The box bumped against his stomach as he flew, making him feel indescribably guilty. He had never stolen before. At least not where it mattered. He had stolen from Santa Claus, the chief guardian of earth's children. Who was he to steal from the man.

Jack spotted his lake, and secretly hoped that the boy was there, so he could wave his arms around and try to be seen, just so he could distract himself. But the kid wasn't there, so Jack had to face his problems alone. He sighed, and flew down to the centre of the semi-frozen lake, creating a thick patch of ice for him to sit on.

The spirit almost cried as he sat down. His back, shoulders and chest were scratched to high hell, and his uniform was utterly destroyed. There were pieces of crusted black leather peeling from the damaged regions. Fury was going to kill him, probably putting him through a thorough questioning first.

With shaking hands, Jack removed the figurine from its box and studied it. He was tempted to throw it into the lake, but Jack knew he couldn't. He had a connection with this thing. Why? Why was it there? Why did its name sound so familiar? It was so strange. For hundreds of years Jack had been trying to find anything that would reveal even a smudged word of his past, but had come up empty. But here was this thing, which Jack felt an undeniable connection to, and it only made him feel angry and confused.

This thing had an almost sinister look to it. The name sounded so familiar, but it's memory was just out of reach. It was right there in his mind, but it was almost as if there was some kind of shadow forbidding Jack from seeing it. It was unlike any of his other forgotten memories, which were always so distant and lost. This one was right in front of him, and Jack was determined to find out what the hell it was. But the only person he could really ask about it was the big guy in the workshop, and Jack had a feeling he would be none-too-pleased to find the a thief demanding questions from his about something the thief never should've stolen in the first place.

So what were his other options? Could he give it to Fury and ask his little team of his to run some tests on it? It was worth a try, but there just be some other way, some other person he could talk to. Jack doubted Steve would know anything. The soldier was nice, and skilled in his knowledge of military stuff, but this statue felt...alien.

It was ethereal in a sense. Jack sighed, and had to blink his eyes a couple of times at the offending sunlight that had pierced his vision.

Oh, crap.

It was daylight already?! Jack panicked and took off leaving the lake behind, he said goodbye to his home, and hoped that that little boy would take care of it for him. Jack was really worried. It would take a little over an hour of flying to get back the the Helicarrier.

Jack flew fast, clutching his staff, and ignoring the playful tugs of the wind. He wanted to play, he really did, but he needed to get back. He had promised Fury he'd get back on time, and he was damn well going to try.

By the time Jack spotted a familiar ship, he was tired. He probably only had a couple more days left without sleep the way he was going. Then again, he was never trying to outrun yeti's before. Jack was worried. All this activity couldn't be good for him! He had always been such a relaxed person, even though on the inside he was more desperate than anything.

A jet sailed past, him, and Jack startled, almost dropping his staff. He grumbled to himself, and closed in of the deck, landing with a rushed stumble. Jack ran towards the entrance where he and Fury had exited earlier, ignoring the stares of a few other agents.

He was knocked of breath when an unseen forced slammed into his left side. His entire body recoiled at the unwelcomed contact. Ouch, he would definitely be feeling that later today. Jack groaned, trying to push himself up off the ground.

But two hands shoved him back onto the unforgiving cement. Jack's vision cleared, and saw a stony faced red-head crouched over him, wearing a black leather SHIELD suit. She had guns strapped to her sides, and Jack was sure he could see a glint of metal near her boot. She leaned in close, and Jack felt his body go rigid. Who the hell was this woman?

"Jack Frost." The woman hissed. "You're lucky you arrived when you did, we were just about to send a team to retrieve you."

"Get the hell off me!" Jack sputtered.

The woman smirked, and complied, pulling Jack roughly to his feet. His shoulder screamed in agony, and Jack's features twisted in pain. The woman's face softened for a moment, before returning back to its original blank mask. "You're hurt. We'll deal with that after you've been debriefed on what happened, and why you were so late. This isn't a game, Jack Frost, and you better have a damn good explanation ready, because Fury is expecting you."

* * *

**A/N -**

**andi annask svell eða vindr - Spirit of Ice and Wind (extremely rough Norse translation)**

**Hey guys first off I want to thank everyone for the amazing suggestions and reviews for my story, as well as everyone who favourited and followed! I'm so sorry this is late,. I honestly have no reason, just I Have been a bit slack lately. I know this is also a lot shorter than I usually write but I thought you might've wanted it sooner rather than later! I look forward to writing some of the suggestions I received! If you have any funny things (funny character interaction, pranks, fails, etc) just tell me in the reviews or send me a message! Don't be shy! I'd love to hear from you! Seriously, it makes my day! **

**By the way, if anyone of you readers out there happens to be an artist, or just good a drawing, PLEASE CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY! I'm in desperate need of a cover image for this story! **

**That's all for now, until next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

A nailed hand dug into the back of his uniform, thankfully keeping away from the torn up mess of his shoulders and back. Jack Frost was livid, if not somewhat embarrassed. This woman had come at him, when he was not prepared, held him against the ground, and threatened him in Fury's name? Who did she think she was. Jack had actually tried asking the woman in black a few times, once even exchanging his annoyed and pissed tone for a more curious and innocent one, the woman didn't take the bait, which made Jack almost scream in frustration.

They had been walking for almost 20 minutes, and besides from their original exchange, the woman hadn't said a word about, where they were going, or why he was in so much trouble in the first place! There's no way Fury could've seen what Jack looked like when he arrived. The Helicarrier didn't seem to be the kind of thing that had scenic windows, but then again, he had only explored a small area of the ship, so he could be wrong.

Jack grunted as the the collar of his uniforms was pulled back choking him, forcing his body to to stop mid-step. It didn't hit any sore spots, but Jack was fed up. He iced the tips of the fingers still attached to his collar, and the woman gasped in surprise. Jack turned around to meet her challenging stare. She spoke. "How dare you-"

The door had whooshed open, and Coulson appeared. That's strange. Coulson was the last person Jack would've expected to see right now. "Ms. Romanoff, I will take it from here. You are excused."

The woman gave Jack one final glare, which to Jack poked his tongue out at to. She growled in response and stalked back down the winding hallway they had came through.

Phil Coulson had noticed the exchange and was trying very hard to not laugh. He was biting the inside of his cheek trying to hold back his reaction from the little exchange that had just unfolded. This kid had not only frozen some part of the master assassin (judging from the shards of ice on the floor) but when she had given him one of her glares, the glare that stopped the enemy in their tracks, the kid had only pointed his tongue at her? It was a bit childish, but Coulson had to admit, the kid had guts.

Coulson signalled for Jack to walk through the door, into a small room. There were two sofas, a mini fridge and a small table with papers scattered across it's otherwise immaculate glass surface. "Have a seat, Mr. Frost. It's past due time we talked." Coulson glanced at his watch. "About two and a half hours, to be precise."

Jack's forehead creased, allowing his hair to fall into his face. He swept it back without a second thought. Two and a half hours! Jack thought he had only been a little over an hour late, not a two and half damned hours! He groaned, knowing he was not going to get out of this with a slap on the wrist.

"So, the question is, where were you, and what the hell did you do to yourself to get so banged up! That suit is fire and wind resistant, not to mention made from a very expensive material."

Jack folded his arms over his chest and thought about what he was going to say, and smirked. He had the perfect explanation.

"I was visiting Santa's workshop, you know, the one in the North Pole? Well, yeah. I was snooping around and the Yeti's almost caught me." Jack gestured to his shredded suit. "I had to make a quick escape."

Coulson's eyebrow quirked at the boy's alibi. He decided to humour him. "Well, Mr. Frost, would you happen to have any uh, evidence, or proof that you were indeed, where you say you were?" Coulson asked dryly. He hoped that they could get through this quickly before moving on to the real thing.

Phil saw Jack Frost dig into the pocket of his leg. Thinking that Jack had reached down to pull out a gun, Coulson's reaction was instant. In the blink of an eye, he had a loaded 22 magnum pointed at Jack's forehead. "Don't even try it." Coulson warned, his voice low and dangerous.

Jack's eyes widened at the sight of the gun. "What? No- I- I don't have a gun."

"Well then what the hell were you doing reaching down into your gun pocket?"

"I was getting my proof. Remember? The thing you asked for?"

Coulson blinked in surprise. He was kidding when he asked for proof, but his curiosity peaked, and against his better judgement, he asked Jack to take it out, the gun still pointed at the spirit.

Without taking his eyes off of the gun, Jack Frost pulled out the tiny box, and slid it across the table. Coulson didn't lower the gun, but Jack felt safe enough to release the breath he hadn't realised he was holding.

Jack watched the agent closely, trying to gauge his reaction. First he read the writing on the plaques, and his eyebrows furrowed. By his expression, he obviously knew something about the writing, but what?

Next, Coulson tried to pry open the golden latch. It wouldn't budge with only one hand, so, giving Jack a 'don't try anything' look, he put his gun away and pulled even harder at the latch. Jack cringed at the force he was putting into it.

"Why isn't it opening. What's inside?" Coulson demanded.

"I-I don't know. Here, let me try."

"Open the latch and then slide it back over."

Jack shrugged, reached over and grabbed the tiny box. The latch opened easily, and without complication. "C'mon, it wasn't that hard, was it?"

"You're in no position to be playing games, Mr. Frost." Coulson warned.

Jack kept his mouth shut, swallowing back all the retorts that sprung to his mind, and slid the box back over. Coulson eyed the box, and said, "On second thought, how about you open it?"

Jack shot him an annoyed look, but did as he was told. When the lid lifted, the sparkling blue figuring lay exactly where Jack had placed it. It still had the eerie feeling to it, and was still the memory he somehow couldn't place.

As soon as Coulson lay his eyes on it, his breathing quickened. I-is this Sapphire?"

Jack had no idea what sapphire was, so he stayed silent.

With shaking fingers, Coulson picked the statue up, smoothing his fingers over the fluttering cape. He studied the swirling patterns on the sword, and the frost on the cape. He tipped the statue upside down to try and get a better look at it's face, but frowned when he saw it was featureless.

"Where did you get this? Did you steal it?" Coulson's tone didn't sound menacing, just curious.

Jack sighed. "I've already told you where I got it, and, yes. I did steal it. But, I-I feel some kind of connection to it. It feels like a memory, but just one I can't reach. It's strange."

Coulson seemed to of have recovered somewhat. "Well, in my experience in dealing with magical beings, this looks like it has an element of mystery to it, which can only be deified as magical. I would like to take it in for more study."

"Like hell you will!" Jack almost shouted.

"Jack. You said that you feel a connection with this thing, didn't you?"

"Yes." Jack said brusquely.

Coulson was unperturbed. "Well, since you brought it in, I guess it's related to your research department. I'm going to be honest with you, we haven't been making much progress, aside from some unusual energy readings when it comes to you. But this, this is our first clue. This could help us find out who you are, and where exactly you came from, which is something that is in both of our best interests. I promise you we won't damage it or harm it, and if you feel the need to visit it, come talk to me and we'll arrange it, ok?"

Jack didn't know what to say. The subject of the research team hadn't been brought up, but then again it had only been a couple of days. Coulson had put it in the most reasonable way possible. What good would it do sitting in his room all day? Finally, Jack nodded.

Coulson clapped his hands together. "Good! You might be called to the lab once or twice to we can get the damn thing opened, but other from that, we shouldn't bother you too much about it. Though, I believe it is high time you give me a proper explanation for where you were, what happened, AND where you found that thing.

Jack sighed to himself. This was the beginning of a long day.

* * *

It had already been a long morning for Coulson. His methods of contacting Stark weren't working out as well as he had hoped, the man was flat out ignoring him. Coulson would need to talk to Fury later on about, it. He was hoping to get authorisation to simply walk into the soon-to-be-opened Stark tower, and cornering Tony about the Avengers Initiative. He was sure Pepper Pots wouldn't mind. In fact, if he got the all clear from Fury, he would contact her over the phone. She was the CEO, after all.

But that would have to wait for later. Right now, he had a more pressing matter on his hands. This kid had appeared more than two and a half hours late, his suit torn up, and practically dripping blood. He looked like he had been through hell. His eyes had looked to be hooded with guilt and worry, and Coulson was worried he'd been attacked by something. Or someone.

But, when Jack was question, he had the nerve to tell Coulson he'd been at Santa's workshop and chased down by Yeti's? It was absurd, and by far one of the most ridiculous explanations he had ever heard. Then the statue made of solid sapphire popped up. He honestly thought the kid was going to pull a gun on him. But the statue, Coulson could sense, had something strange about it. It was off somehow, there was just no other way to explain it, other than off.

Coulson had kept Jack for another 20 minutes after that. At the start, the kid kept insisting that he had been at Santa's workshop, and Coulson would d pushed him out the door if it wasn't for the sincerity in his eyes. So he questioned further. He told Phil Coulson how he had crawled through elf tunnels that lead into a room, and how he had been looking through some shelves, when he found a button in the wall. He pressed it, found the box, and was almost discovered. He got out of there through the same tunnels but he had to fly to make it out quickly enough. Which scratching up his body on rocky shards going at high speed. That made some sense, at least.

Coulson had questioned the boy thoroughly, but had to stop after he refused to tell him anything else. "I've told you everything, can I go now?" He had asked. His eyes were resigned, and he looked bored and disinterested.

Phil tried once more to coerce the boy into telling him something more believable, but all he received was a flat, deadpan look. Coulson sighed. "You are free to go, . But due to your recent activities, an agent must accompany you at all times, only making an exception for your bathroom habits. He will live next to you, in a room connected to yours. We're are putting a door in as we speak."

Jack's mouth hung open.

"As soon as you walk out that door for the day, you meet with Steve and go to breakfast, as usual. Your agent will be there with Steve to accompany you. They will take you to training, and will most likely end up being your training partner. This agent I'm assigning you will keep a sharp eye on you and will accompany you anywhere you go."

Jack had jumped out of his chair, ready for an argument. But Coulson cut him off, saying something that made him freeze his steps.

"If you do not comply, I will assign Agent Clint Barton to keep an eye on you. And trust me, he won't be happy about it." Coulson's features softened when the Jack threw him a dirty look. "They're not my orders kid, this is only temporary, but I expect you to get along well with this agent."

There was a knock at the door, and Coulson hollered for them to enter. A tall, lean man walked through the door, he had sunglasses resting atop his head, the same SHIELD suit, flame-red hair, and though he had the SHIELD issued facial expression, there was a glint of humour in his green eyes. Aside from the usual gun at the waist, this man had what looked to be a small baton strapped to his waist. Jack eyed it warily.

"Jack Frost, meet Alex Summers, your uh, well... I would call it chaperone, but that would be kind of offensive, seeing as Mr. Summers here is a highly trained SHIELD agent, so let's just call him your partner, for now."

Alex walked forward and offered out his hand to Jack. Begrudgingly, he took it, applying a light layer of Frost across the man's glove. Alex seemed unfazed, but did turn his hand over to curiously inspect the icy pattern.

Giving an approving nod, Coulson walked out of the room, but stopped suddenly. "Jack, you have training in half an hour. Go back to your room and get fitted into a new suit. There is a first aid kit on the kitchen bench, Mr. Summers has been asked to assist you in bandaging up your wounds. Don't resist, training's going to be tough today." And with that, Coulson left.

Jack stomped out the door, a silent Alex trailing behind them. He was feeling spiteful so with a scream of frustration, Jack froze the entire hallway, coating the walls, floor and ceiling in slippery, sparkling ice.

"Yeah, it looks better that way, I was never a fan of the ominous black hallways anyway."

Jack whirled around in surprise, but recovered quickly, "Don't talk to me." He growled, trying his best to scowl menacingly at the man.

Alex, however, seemed unfazed. "You know Jack, I have a particularly bratty 12 year old niece back at home, and right now, I can't tell the difference between the two of you."

Jack's eye narrowed. He was so done with this while training thing. Right now, SHIELD was treating him as a child. He had already had a long day, he was tired, aching, and fed up. Jack swung his staff in Alex's direction. But the threat that had been boiling at his lips vanished when Alex ducked, quicker than lightning. That baton he had seen strapped to the agent's waist was out, but with a flick of his hand, it had extended in to a 5ft long pole. It was so simple, but the way Alex swing it around in his hands made it look so effective.

Pretty soon, the agent had the pole pointed towards Jack. "Hey, listen. I'm going to get this straight right now. I have to be at your side at all times, so we're going to have to get along with each other. Fighting won't solve anything, and if your really that pissed with me, you can take out your anger in training, seeing as we're sparring partners as well. So, calm down, and let's talk."

Jack hesitated, but this guy was spot on. He didn't like the circumstances he was in, or the fact that he was being shadowed wherever he went, but this guy was the first agent he'd seen, (aside from Steve, but he wasn't really an agent to begin with) that was agreeable, and actually made an effort to talk with him.

"Can you teach me how to do that thing with the stick?" Jack blurted.

Alex's serious face split into a surprised grin. "You want to learn Bōjutsu? I've tried to teach some of the other agents before, but they think it's useless. They say that a stick isn't the best weapon to wield, and that they'd prefer to fight with knives or gun's, but it's probably the great defensive weapon out there! Well, aside from the Captains shield of course." His sentance was all over the place, but Jack got the gist of it.

"What's Bōjutsu?" Jack questioned.

Alex looked happy to explain. "It's a Japanese fighting style, and it's usually incorporated with hand-to-hand combat. They say that this thing," He held up the stick, "the Bō, is merely an extensions of one's limbs when fighting. It's the first thing you need to remember when you wield a Bō." Alex looked so proud of himself. He didn't look cocky, and obviously didn't think he was hot stuff, like Clint did. Alex just looked like he was proud to be probably the only one that thought the Bōjutsu fighting was the best way to go. And, by the way Alex was swinging that stick around, Jack thought it was pretty cool too. And he wanted to learn.

"So Jack, do you want to learn?" Alex asked as he leaned forward, an eager glint in his eye.

Jack's face slip into a broad grin. "Well, I guess this staff has got to be handy for things other than freezing ruse archers to the floor." He said as he gestured to the the crooked stick.

Alex's eyes widened comically. "You didn't..."

* * *

There was a knock at Jack's bedroom door. Jack was getting into another one of his SHIELD issued suits, after painfully stripping away the shredded leather remnants of his last one, and Alex bandaging his back and shoulders. He had iced over his body again, tenderly putting a light coating his wounded skin. He and Alex had walked back to Jack's little corner of the Helicarrier, with Jack recalling yesterday morning's hilarious events, and Alex guffawing at every second sentence.

They had even ran into Steve, and it seemed that Steve and Alex knew each other. Jack was surprised at this, until Steve said that he had requested someone to spar with, and because of Alex's unique fighting style, he was seemingly perfect for advanced hand-to-hand combat. Steve mentioned that Alex Summers had almost put him on his ass before Steve had ripped the stick away from him. Alex wasn't completely defences, of course, but only lasted another minute going head to head with the super soldier before he found himself laying on his back with Steve looming over top of him, offering a hand up.

"His fighting style was different, and it was great to spar with him." Steve had mentioned. Alex had grinned in response.

Jack Frost found Alex to be a hell of a lot different from the other either rude, or shy agents. He was easy to talk with and had a wicked sense of humour. He even made fun of himself a few times, making hilarious red head jokes that Jack had mostly understood. Jack had only seen such firefly locks once before, and that was when he visited a strange country, where the festivals lasted long into the night, and they all spoke with a strange garbled version of english.

Alex knocked at the door to Jacks's room again, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Coming!" He yelled.

"Hurry up, Jack it's freezing in here!" The red head complained.

Jack sniggered to himself and glanced at his boots. He decided he wouldn't wear them, and if Coulson had a problem with it, he could refer back to Jack's last results with the boots on. He strutted out the door, barefoot and glancing at Alex who was huddled on the couch hugging a pillow.

"T-took you l-long enough." He chattered. "You've got the walls iced up AND the air-con at full power. I know you control ice and everything, but do you even feel the cold?"

Jack shrugged. "The colder the better, when it comes to me. I've never really noticed the cold. It's the heat that I feel. If I'm ever suffering from a life-threatening wound, lay me down in the snow and pile it on top of me. It helps me heal faster."

Alex seemed to process this information quickly. He rushed to the door, and waited there for Jack to scan his finger before bolting stepping out the door. Jack chuckled to himself. 'The cold really wasn't that bad, was it?' He thought to himself.

Alex checked his watch just as Jack stepped out the door after him and groaned.

"We're going to be late. It's a ten minute walk and we have two minutes to be there." He groaned again. "I'm going to get my ass kicked for this, it's the first day on the job!"

Jack felt really bad for the man. He had taken longer than necessary to get ready, and now he had made them late. He really didn't want to get his new friend in trouble. "Can we run?" Jack asked?

"You can try, but at this hour, your bound to bowl over some people." Alex said glumly.

Jack's eyed brightened as an idea came to mind. "Well... What if not.. on the ground?"

"What are you talking about?" Alex questioned, a mix of wariness and curiosity in his eyes.

Jack grinned devilishly, and walked up behind Alex. Alex stood still but looked over his shoulder at the frost spirit. "What are yo-" he was cut off as Jack slid his arms under the agents armpits and took to the air.

Alex Summers let out a loud yell through the first hallway, causing a few alarmed scientists to stick their heads of of their labs. All the caught sight of was a black streak tinged with white and red. 5 hallways later, Alex had calmed down somewhat and yelled, "I didn't know you could fly dammit!"

"Really?" Jack shouted. "When I told you I control the ice and wind I wasn't kidding around! Just relax and enjoy it!"

Alex must've been somewhat of a thrill seeker, because Jack heard a few gleeful shouts as the two zoomed toward their destination. They were going so fast now that Alex wasn't hanging from where Jack was holding him anymore, his torso and legs had risen, and they were both flying straight. It was a good thing too, because Alex had almost knocked out a few bewildered agents with his steel-capped boots on more than one occasion.

They skidded to a halt only one short hallway down from the training room, and Jack settled them on the ground. Alex stood with shaking limbs, but he looked absolutely exhilarated. "That amazing! I can see why flying can come in handy!" Alex said.

"Yeah, it's great. I hate when I'm cooped up for too log without being allowed to go flying." Jack sighed. "I guess that's going to be happening a lot more often now, though, now that I'm under house arrest."

Sensing Jack's discomfort, Alex spoke up. "Well you can always give Fury a run for him money and go for a zoom around the Helicarrier. I can just imagine, you flying around and Fury chasing after you! It be hilarious!"

Jack seemed to cheer up a little. The pair started walking toward the training room and promptly arrived with only seconds to spare. Fury was waiting for them, and raised an eyebrow at Alex's appearance. Jack had to admit, it did look kinda funny. His hair was slicked back, due to flying so fast, but the back of his hair was messy and tangled together, his red locks sticking out behind him. All in all, Alex looked like he had been electrocuted.

Alex smiled sheepishly and subtly shifted behind Jack as they approached Fury. "I suspect there were no compilations, Mr. Summers?"

Alex stepped forward and looked the director in the eye. "None at all sir, Ja- uh, Mr. Frost has behaved himself." Jack shot an annoyed glance in his partners direction, and received a shrug of apology in return.

"Very good. Alex, you're dismissed for a few minutes, I need to talk to Jack privately. Go warm up."

Alex nodded and disappeared into the training room.

"Frost. I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but don't screw me around. I will let this go, just this once, but if I am ever presented with such an absurd explanation again, from the likes of you, I will not hesitate to strip your flying privileges from you."

Jack's eyes widened. He thought he wasn't allowed to go flying anymore! "So I'm still allowed to fly, then?"

Fury nodded. "Yes, but only within a 10 mile radius of the ship. If you want to go any further, you must be accompanied. And you must always be on time. I will give you a watch. Am I clear?"

"Crystal." Jack grinned.

"Fury?"

"Yes, Mr. Frost?"

"Thank-you."

Fury gave a hint of a smile. "Just stuck by the rules I've set, and you won't need to thank me for any favours of the sort again."

Jack nodded and slipped into the training room. His bright blue eyes widened with shock, as he noticed the changes that had been made. There were black walls about half a foot thick, all connecting strategically to form a twisting maze. Well, it was kind of like two mazes. There was a big pathway down the middle of the maze. There were also two groups of men and women, both of equal number and dressed in SHIELD standard black, set apart by the different coloured sashes they were wearing.

The group to the left was wearing a red sash, whilst the group to the right was wearing a blue one. What the hell did Coulson have in store him today?

Fury walked up behind Jack. The man was so silent even Jack didn't hear him. "Where's Coulson?" Jack questioned.

"Agent Coulson has been called in to another one of SHIELD's top secret bases. He will be there for a minimum of two weeks."

Jack frowned. He had to admit, he held a bit of a grudge against the man at the moment, but Jack had been looking forward to going over some more defence techniques in training today. Coulson seemed to explain in a way that Jack could actually understand, and that was a quality that was hard to come by.

"Moving on. Today, Jack Frost, you will be taught patience, stealth, and aim. This-" Fury pulled out what looked to be a gun from behind his back. Jack didn't even flinch. "Is a paintball gun. We don't particularly want anybody to die today, so we're using gun's that shoot balls of paint at the victim. But rest assured Frost, it still hurts like a bitch." Fury gave a twisted smile.

"There are two teams of 20. And just to make it interesting, Steve has decided to join in on the fun." Fury gestured to Steve, who was standing with the red team idly chatting to some of the other agents. "Mr. Summers is on your team, to make it fair."

"But I don't know how to use a gun." Jack protested.

Fury sighed. "We figured that out pretty quickly. You will be using your staff. Everyone is wearing protective gear, but any icy hits to the head or crotch area and you get a time penalty. If you get hit, you're out. The aim of the game is to take out all the opponents team before time runs out. If the time runs out, and members from both teams are standing, the team with the most members will be the winners. Oh, and you can't exit the maze, or using your flying powers. If you do, you're out as well. Any questions?"

Jack shook his head.

"Both team to their ends!" Fury shouted.

The red team shuffled to the other end of the large room, going via the path separating the maze. They stopped at the other end, awaiting instruction. Jack walked over to Alex and slipped on the blue sash he offered him. "I take it you've never played paintball before?" Alex said, a smirk evident in his voice.

Jack gave him a deadpan look, but said nothing.

"Well at least you have your staff thingy. I think it can be used to our advantage, because I'm pretty sure no one wants their ass blasted with ice." He grinned.

Jack returned the grin.

A loud blaring noise sounded across the room, and Jack's team began to move into the maze via the first opening. "That's our signal to go." Alex said. "Stick with me, and if your unsure what to do, just ask. You've got my back, and I've got yours, alright?" Jack gulped, and nodded. He was nervous, but looking forward to the game. Alex and Jack stepped forward into the maze, and Jack looked around. The walls were at least 3 times as high as he was, and if Jack stretched his arms out, he could just touch each side of the path they were on.

A shot sounded, followed by a shout of surprise and a grumble of defeat. "I wonder who that was? Alex whispered to himself. Jack shook his head to clear his thoughts. Focus. He needed to focus. This may be a game, but Jack did not want to get shot. He had a bullet nick his shoulder before, when he was checking out what ended up being a war zone. It had been extremely painful, and Jack had lay down under a snowdrift for a few days to recuperate. He knew that these balls of paint wouldn't hurt as much as that did, but he didn't want to find how the comparison.

Jack and Alex Summers had moved further and further into the maze. A lot of people didn't know that Alex was skilled with a gun. They all thought that he used his Bō for protection and because was pretty useless at everything else. It was untrue, of course. Alex simply just loved using his Bō. There was nothing else to it other than the fact that he was extremely skilled at using it.

Alex had seen the fear spring in Jack's eyes when the first shot rang through the room. It wasn't as loud as a normal gunshot, of course. But in a room of highly trained SHIELD agents in stealth mode, you could almost hear a pin drop. Alex would try his best to watch Jack's back, and he prayed that Jack would watch his. Because getting hit with a paintball wasn't necessarily an enjoyable experience.

They had moved further and further into the maze, and their team had scattered into all directions. Jack and Alex stood alone at a dead end. Jack was in the process of turning around, and Alex was cursing under his breath, when shots rang across the room.

PAP PAP PAP

Paint was flying, and Jack had instinctively ducked at the noise. It was all out war now. The noise was like somebody had flipped a switch, going from stealthy silence, to frantic cacophony. Jack could hear shouts ringing throughout the room, and his heart almost stopped when he saw a red agent walk past them. Alex let out a shout of surprise, but they saw a splat of red on the agent's back, and the pair both breathed a sigh of relief.

"I think it's time to get out of here. We don't want to trapped here in a dead end when we encounter an active member of the other team." Alex spoke up.

Jack nodded his agreement, and the two padded out of there, turning down another hallway. Jack was worried about Steve. There was no doubt in Jack's mind that the super soldier was skilled with a gun, being in the army and all. Jack was sure the majority of the shouts of victory were coming from him.

They turned another corner, and bumped into a member of their team. Jack instinctively raised his staff, ready to blast the woman when he realised that it was a member of his own team. "Emily?" Alex questioned.

"Look out you two, Captain Rogers is a sharp shooter, he's taken out 9 people already. Add that in with the other soldiers, and I'm pretty sure we only have about 6 people left. Good luck." She said, and vanished from sight.

Jack looked toward Alex who had a playful glint in his eyes. "I'm done hiding from these guys. It's time to ice up some asses, are you ready?" Jack nodded. He was still nervous, but after hearing what Emily had just said, he was rearing to go. Alex gave him a devilish grin and tilted his head. "Good, because I can hear someone coming."

Jack tuned in using his keen senses and listened to the footfalls that were approaching. "They're too light to be Steve." He whispered.

"Do you want to take it?" Alex asked?

Jack hesitated, but nodded slightly and moved forward. Very slowly, he peered around the corner and got a good look at the offending agent. It was red, and he was still active. Jack had an advantage, because the man was turned slightly away from where he was hiding. Deciding he wanted to get this done quickly, Jack pulled his staff out in front of him, and shot a small blast of ice at the back of the man's leg. Ice formed around the majority of his lower calf, and the man gasped, turning around with narrowed eyes.

Jack stepped out, and gave the man a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I hope it didn't hurt too much."

"I'm fine." The man grumbled, and stormed off.

Alex had appeared behind Jack, and suddenly, fired his gun four times. Jack scrambled away, retreating back to the safety of his corner. "Dammit, I missed him. I guess you forgot that guy your shot had a partner, hey frost boy."

Jack scowled at his obvious mistake, and looked at Alex. His eyes held humour in them, but we're still sharp and looking for the person he had shot at. Two shots fired, and Alex ducked, causing the red pellets to splatter against the wall behind him. Jack's partner fired off another shot, and whooped a cry of victory. "Yes! I got her! Ok, I think we're done here, let's move."

Jack followed Alex as they tiptoed through the maze. They encountered another 3 agents. Jack took the first one out with ease, and Alex the second one. But the third one was extremely nimble. She kept twisting and turning, avoiding both shots of ice and blue paint. But Jack ended up cornering her in a dead end, and hitting her shoulder. Unlike the other agent, this woman walked forward, and shook both Jack and Alex's hand. "That was fun, good job." She had said.

Jack had been extremely surprised at this. He looked to Alex, who only shrugged and they kept moving.

They were now moving swiftly through each section of the maze, even daring to dart across the pathway down the middle. They made it, but we're fired at a few times. The two were back to moving through the maze, which was now covered in splats of red and blue paint. They were in the middle of the left side of the maze, when Jack heard footfalls approaching. Heavy footfalls.

"I'd say we got them all but the bell hasn't sounded yet, so there must be one left. Jack heard the familiar tone of Steve's voice and cringed. Alex must've caught a glimpse of the him because he turned to Jack and whispered. "Rogers is two hallways down. He's got 4 other agents with him, and from what I know, they're all sharp shooters." Jack looked over his shoulder at Alex and grimaced. He had a plan formulating in his mind and smiled at the pure evil genius of it.

"Alex," he whispered, "I have a plan. It's playing a little bit dirty, but it is two against five, super soldier included. Whatever happens, just cover me."

Alex nodded solemnly. This was where it ended.

The large group with red sashes had crossed into the hallway very close to where the two were hiding. If they kept walking, they would walk right past Jack and Alex. Jack smiled to himself. Everything was in position, the enemy team had fallen into a trap.

Jack Frost touched his staff to the ground, and sent a burst of energy into it. The floor iced before his eyes, and Alex started laughing. The ice by now would have iced up a little more that a third of the left side of the maze.

The red team was shouting in surprise. Jack heard a man say, "It's that Frost kid! He's still active!"

Jack turned to Alex, his face alight with pride. "Alex, try taking a few of the out."

Alex crept forward, firing a few shots of blue at the bewildered team. He nicked the shoulder of the one right in front, before the group dove down to all sides. It was actually kind of funny to see them sliding around on the ice. No, it was hilarious. Jack burst into delighted laughter, earning a few grumbles from the other team.

Steve spoke up. "Jack! That was clever! May the best man win!"

Jack smiled. Usually when he iced up a road, or a street, he wasn't compliment for his smarts.

Alex was wearing his trademark grin, and he looked ready for a fight. He turned to Jack.

"Steve's right, that was awesome! Now we're a lot more even. Though, if I could take a guess, I would say that we have more of an advantage, because they may be able to stand still and shoot, be its probably really hard to to dodge an incoming paintball when your standing on ice."

Jack poked his head out and saw that Steve had assembled the team close to the wall, on the same side as Jack and Alex were, making it harder for them to shoot, and so that they would need to put more of their body out into the open to hit a target. Jack had to give it to Steve, it was a smart move.

"Jack, can you extend the wall from the corner about two feet out, and make it so there's a hole about the size of a large orange in the middle of it, about chest level?"

Jack was thoroughly confused, but he trusted Alex, and nodded. It would take a bit of energy, but he could do it with ease. Using his staff, Jack touched it to where the ground met the corner of the wall, and drew an icy line about two feet out into the hall. The tip of his staff was fired at a few times, but it didn't deter him. With a final burst of energy, he drew up a wall, taking special care to put an small hole about chest level in the ice.

Jack heard Steve and the other curse at what he had done, but the noise of feet sliding on the ice had stopped. Alex gave a wicked grin. Jack was still in the dark about Alex's plan, but it soon came to light when the agent crawled out to where the hole was and stuck the muzzle of his gun through. Steve's keen eyes saw it first, and he yelled out.

"Run for cover!"

But it was too late. Alex had already taken aim and began to fire off several rounds at the scattering group. Jack smothered his hand over his face to hold back his laughter at seeing the scattering agents. He managed, but only just.

Jack giggles abruptly stopped, when the hair on the back of his neck rose. Alex was still firing away, and paint was coming from both sides, but something was...off. An agent rounded the corner, right behind where Alex was crouched, and fired a red paintball directly into his back. He gasped, before groaning at his defeat. "Sorry Jack," he grumbled, "your on your own."

Alex trotted off to go wait with the other non-active players. Jack was stunned by what had just happened. Steve had tricked him. By only sending one of his team out, and travelling in a line against the wall, it looked like no one was missing from their group, and made it so that a single person could sneak around and take them by surprise.

He was impressed, but Jack more also angry. Against his better judgement, he stalked up the hall, and saw the woman that had fired walking alongside Alex, talking to him. Jack raced forward and quickly shot a bolt of ice at her back, hitting her square between the shoulders. Both her and Alex turned around in surprise and Alex laughed outright.

"Good one, Jack! She wasn't expecting it?"

The woman shot a flare at Jack before she turned and stormed off, the ice cracking and falling to the ground under her shifting shoulders. Alex gave Jack a smirk before he turned and jogged off after her.

The winter spirit started walking back the way he came, when he heard a loud siren echo throughout the area.

Fury's boomed throughout the room. "Times up. All remaining players report to the front of the room."

Jack looked down the hall saw Steve slide past his ice wall, and waited for him to catch up.

"Tough game, right?"

"Yeah, that was really smart, sending that lady out to come from the other side. We weren't expecting it at all."

They walked side by side, idly chatting with each other until they reached the opening where the blue team had entered.

Fury approached, "Very good boys! Jack, I can honestly say that I'm surprise you were one of the last men standing. Captain Rogers, I expected nothing less."

Steve grinned. "It was the most fun I've had in a while, Director."

Fury nodded. "Everyone is dismissed for the rest of the day. You are relieved from your duties for a couple of hours. Go, and enjoy yourselves."

Alex approached from Jack's left. "Awesome! Fury almost never lets us off. It's usually Coulson or Agent Hill that gives us break time. But I guess they have to let us agents use the gaming room for something, right?

"The gaming room?" Jack questioned.

"Oh, man, you're going to love it."

* * *

**A/N - Hey I'm back bigger and better than ever before! (I'm kidding) This chapter is over 7000 words and 12 pages on word, so I'm very please with myself. I truly hope you liked the OC character, Alex. You'll be seeing a lot more of him. I know the story is taking a while to go somewhere, but I promise that the next one will show the advancement of Jack's skills over maybe a week or so. Can anyone guess where Coulson went? There will be more of Steve in the next chapter as well for those who missed him in this one. By the way, did anyone catch the reference in the last chapter? Ahem, 'A figure in red in blue." if you caught it. Someone has contacted me about drawing a cover photo but if you want to have a go, please message me! Anyway, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, and I know its moving slow, but there will be more progress in the next few chapters. **

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and favourites this story, you guys give me life! So, tell me what you liked, didn't like, favourite, follow, but most importantly, REVIEW! Tell me if you loved it, or if you didn't like this chapter too much. Tell me what I can do better, any spelling or grammar mistakes I've made, I want to hear it all! Until next time!**


	8. Chapter 8

This room that Alex had brought him to reminded Jack of the city he visited last night. There were bright lights and noises flashing around, and thumping music echoed off of the seemingly soundproof walls, as Jack hadn't heard anything before Alex opened the door.

It was strange, and foreign. People glanced his way, and moved to the other side of the room. Jack sighed. It seemed as though a lot of the agents still hadn't accepted him yet. He supposed he would have to get used to it.

"C'mon, we don't want to be in this part anyway. It smells like body odour and month old training boots." Alex joked, sensing Jack's obvious discomfort.

Jack trailed behind Alex as the skirted the edge of the surging mass of people. Jack and A,ex had relaxed in Alex's room for a few hours, basically killing time before they went to the 'Gaming Room'. Alex taught Jack what the TV does, expertly using the long thin device he called a remote, to change what he called 'channels' on the TV. Alex said there was nothing interesting on, and that they'd have to settle for a nature documentary. Jack wasn't exactly sure what a 'documentary' was, but soon found out that it taught you about different animals.

Jack had been fascinated by all the different species of fauna that flashed across the screen. It was a whole new experience, and if Jack looked at the screen too long, he found himself looking around the room as if to get a better look at the sandy deserts or jungles around him, only to realised he could only see what was on the TV.

He had cringed when a huge black wolf appeared, savagely ripping into some unfortunate animal. Jack had begun discussing his hate for the beasts, recalling a story about being attacked by a random one when he was nosing around in a small patch of woods.

This spurred a flurry of stories from Alex, and the red-head soon have Jack wiping tears from his eyes from laughing too hard. The guy was just too funny! He animated his tales with different sounds and gestures that made it all the more funnier. Jack was mid-way through telling about his fun time chasing a group of spooked wild horses through wide open fields when Alex's watched had beeped, signalling it was time to leave. Alex had advised Jack to change, so Jack rushed next door and put on his beloved hoodie and trousers.

And now, they were here, toeing their way past over-excited party-goers. After a tense couple of minutes, Jack and Alex broke free of the crowd, and made their way to the back of the room. This room was better, but still noisy in its own way. There were pools tables, and card games, and even a soccer match progressing to the right. In addition, a huge space of about 60 square feet was at the back of the room.

But the main thing Jack noticed, is that it was hot. Near frozen sweat was dripping down the side of Jack's face, in his immortal body's attempt to keep his internal systems moderately below zero. The spirit of Winter knew he couldn't stay in here for too long. This room was huge, surely there must be air-conditioning in here?

Jack had come to rely on air-conditioning. Fury made sure that it was cold in the training room, and Jack managed to keep himself moderately cool wherever else he went in the Helicarrier, but this room must've been about 90 degrees! Probably because the gaming rooms are sealed off from the rest of the ship to block out noise.

"Hmm, that's strange. There's usually a lot more people in here. I guess they moved all the speakers and stuff out into the lounge area, seeing as the AC in here isn't working." Alex commented.

Jack swallowed, and formed a fresh layer of ice under his clothes. He had found that after he got used to being in his SHIELD uniform for so long, he only needed to coat his body in ice when he got really hot. Like now, for instance, even though he was back to the classic hood and trousers. Jack knew it wasn't going to last long, maybe 10 minutes or so before water started to drop down his leg.

Alex looked at Jack with wide eyes. Well, they were always kinda wide. His green tinged eyes always kinda looked a little too big for his head, but they always held a glint of humour. Something that Jack appreciated in a person.

"Hey Jack, it is kinda hot in here, even for me! How are you holding?"

"I'll be fine for a little while. I've got a bit of a party trick that helps me keep cool." He covered his hand in a fine layer of frost to prove his point. Alex scoffed. "I wish I could do that. It would've really helped when the main aircon system spontaneously combusted one fine summers day. The whole Helicarrier felt like an oven, and us agents were all cooking alive."

Jack winced. He would've been clawing at the door to get out and fly away. But he could've just froze a couple of rooms and let everybody cool down in there. Wait a minute.

"Ugh. It is really hot in here, I don't think we should stay too long. Maybe I can introduce you to a few people before we leave." Alex stated.

Jack felt kind of glum. He'd been having a great day already. Asides from the rather harsh morning, Today Jack had played paintball (which was actually kind of fun) made what he considered a new friend, and even found a clue that could be the leading factor in unlocking his memories and finding out more about himself. Add that in with Alex's story-telling skills and you have a happy frost spirit. But take away the air-conditioning and his night out, you've left the immortal bringer of Winter feeling a little sour.

So for the next 20 minutes, Jack tailed Alex around, only speaking when someone spoke to him, laughing at people's jokes, and smiling nervously when he was introduced to a new person. There was only one person that he didn't mind too much. That was the woman that had walked up and shook hands with him in the middle of a paintball game after he and Alex had spent a while trying to get her out. Jack had made the hit, and the woman had smiled and shook his hand, complimenting the spirit on his keen shot.

She had been pleasant to talk to, somewhat serious, but also very sarcastic. Sometimes, when she was talking, Jack couldn't tell the difference. Alex didn't seem to know her very well, but she had seen them and introduced herself. Her name was Christine, and she had straight brown hair that framed her thin features and pale blue eyes, one's that always seemed to hold a challenge within them.

Alex seemed to keep his friends close, but his enemy's closer, it seemed. One of the more confident agents approached as Alex and Jack were making their way over to the soda machine, and sneered at the two. "Look's like you found the little reject, eh Summers? I bet you two are best of buddies, spend all of your time together. Is that a stick you got there, ice-boy? I bet Alex gave it to you, didn't he. We all know what a fan of sticks he is."

The man honestly reminded Jack of a rat. His features were too close of his nose, his mouth twisted into a sneer. But he was tall. Jack estimated him to be almost as tall as Steve!

Poor Alex was obviously embarrassed. His face was set into a permanent cringe, and he was choosing to look to the left instead of tilting his head upwards to stare at the man. Jack let out a bored sigh, and examined his nails, trying to pick minuscule flecks of red and blue paint from the tips.

"It's not a stick, you know. It's a staff, and it's a hell of a lot more powerful than you'll ever dream to be."

"I don't dream to be powerful, kid. I know I'm the best. Better than you, better than Alex, and better than anyone in this room."

Jack's ocean blue eyes had turned dark, and he took his most menacing step forward. "I don't know wh-"

"Oof!"

The Winter Spirit was shoved back by both of the mans meaty arms, and toppled over Alex. It was a tangled mess of limbs and hair, until Jack stood straight up, clutching his staff in the white knuckle of his right hand. Tensions were high in the gaming room, and many of the agents had turned toward the direction of the fight.

'Time to end this now.' Jack thought.

With a single fluid swing, the spirit waved his trusted staff at the sneering giant. "I'll give you one last warning. Back. Off." Jack growled. His voice was dark and ominous, and everyone but the bully had started to notice the frantic breeze bouncing through the room, and the sudden drop in temperature.

"Oh yeah? What are you-"

The guy was cut off when Jack pulled his staff back and swung it towards the brute's feet, adding extra energy to swiftly coat his ankles in a thicker layer of ice. A deep, rich colour of blue glacier-like ice weighed down the taller man's feet, and snaked up his leg. Jack felt kind of annoyed now, wishing he had picked a more original method, rather than freezing someone's lower half again. But, it was done.

Jack offered his right hand out to Alex and helped him up off of the tiled floor. Alex dusted himself off, gaping at the thrashing guy frozen in the centre of the room. The thicker ice had started cracking, and nobody moved to help him. All the agents stood crowded around him, half of them gaping and looking around with frantic eyes, but the other half were smiling. Some of them had smug smiles they tried to unsuccessfully hide with their hands, others were pointing strange flashing devices at the man, and the rest were downright laughing. One rowdy group of men laughed so hard the tumbled onto the floor, tears leaking out of their eyes.

Some of the crystal ice started to break off of where it stopped in the middle of the man's upper calf, and he looked near to tears. He was frantic in his movements, trying to escape the mocking stares of the rest of the room. Jack glanced over to Alex, who had joined the party of people who were trying to hide their smiles. The wind had ceased, and the temperature had gone back to normal.

The Winter Spirit shifted his gaze to the crowd. This man was downright nasty, and Jack had put him in his place, but he didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve to be humiliated, with all of his peers laughing and staring holes at where he stood. Jack sighed. He had done this.

* * *

Steve Rogers stood at the very back of the room, with a disappointed frown on his face, and a resigned look in his eyes. He had been in this room all night, bearing the stuffy heat and coy glances from some of the female agents. All night he had been keeping is eyes on a particular frost spirit. He watched as Jack and his partner Alex Summers wandered through the vast room, mingling with some of the agents that didn't seem to enjoy the mini-club in the other room.

Jack was obviously a little shy, and Steve completely understood. His transformation into a super solider had opened up completely new pathways for him. There was always someone new to meet, some other person he had to impress. But thankfully, his mother had raised him well, and taught him manners how to socialise.

Jack had never learned any of these things, never had anyone to teach him. Steve got the feeling that this kid was always a bit of a loner, and the fact that nobody had ever seen him (this still confused Steve) for nearly 300 years, he the soldier guessed he wasn't very well socialised.

So he watched from the corner of the room. Jack seemed to be having a good time, and Alex didn't push him to meet new people, answering all of his questions and introducing the kid only when Jack stepped out from behind him. Steve could see these two already had a strong friendship. They way they walked beside each other, and their non-verbal communication reminded him of how soldiers acted on the battlefield, in a way.

Like they way that if Jack was feeling too shy to say hello, he would subtly shift behind Alex, and keep his head down. Alex would keep his conversation with this person as short as possible, and move onto someone else. And if Jack took an interest in someone, the red-head did as much as possible to ease Jack into a conversation with them. They had met about 20 people, Jack only really talking to a few of them, but seemed to be enjoying himself, until another agent approached the two.

Steve sensed trouble as the guy lumbered over, and his suspicions were confirmed when Alex went rigid, standing straight up where he stood. Jack seemed to notice and gave a quizzical balance at the man. Steve couldn't hear what the agent said as they were all the way across the huge room, but his super-hearing could detect the snarl in his voice. The hundred-or-so agents seemed to gravitate towards the escalating fight, and Steve began to close in, taking cautious strides.

He barely had time to blink before Alex and Jack were shoved over by the brute. Steve noticed the auburn-haired woman Jack was conversing with earlier begin to run over, but she was still too far away. Steve himself had begaun to break into a jog, but stopped in his tracks when Jack stood up. He looked calm, and sure of himself. Steve knew Jack could handle himself, and honestly wanted to see how he would deal with this particular situation.

Jack tilted his head up, and Steve began to back up to the corner he had been standing in as a few of the more observant agents shit him curious glances. Steve smiled to himself when he saw Jack trying to reason the situation, or at telecast that what's he presumed was going on. Steve's back hit the wall a little to the left of where he had previously been standing. He watched intently, observing the situation from afar.

The soldier sucked in a surprised gasp when Jack swung his wicked staff at the man, midway through the bully's sentence. It was like what happened with Clint all over again, only this time it wasn't funny. There were only three people in the room when Jack had frozen Clint, and it was only a monitor dent in his pride. Jack had done this in the middle of a huge room full of people, all watching and gaping at what had happened.

Steve observed that this man wasn't very well like among his co-workers. Nobody had moved to help to poor man, and the poor guy thrashed desperately trying to break free. Steve was so disappointed, as he watched some the agents laugh and point their tiny mobile telephones and take pictures of the scene. The man was now red in the face, and looked close to crying.

He was so disappointed in Jack, his friend. Steve Rogers sighed, and stepped forward to help the man unfortunate man. This wasn't right, nobody deserves this. Jack could've dealt with this so much better, just could've walked away, and left the man to himself. But he took petty revenge, and even though this man was a downright bully, and was very unreasonable in his approach, he didn't deserve this.

Steve was halfway there, when Jack took a careful, measured step forward. The frozen man shot Jack a glare of pure hatred, mingled in with a sliver of fear. Steve moved faster, attempting to stop Jaco before he did something he would regret. Like embarrass the guy further. But he didn't. He just stopped, and stared. His frosty gaze staring at the ice encasing the man's legs. And then, without a sound, he hooked the curved end of his staff at the top of the ice, finding a place where some of the ice had cracked off and left a gap between where skin met ice. He gave a small tug, as if to make sure the staff was secure, and the yanked it back. The ice started cracking.

With a determined expression, Steve saw Jack dig his bare feet into the tiled floor and pulled even harder. Large bits of ice started to fall off, and the trapped man started moving wildly, thrashing and twisting his waist in an attempt to free himself. Jack cringed. He looked like he was actually starting to feel very guilty.

With a final taxing tug, a large chunk of ice cracked down the middle and split from the frozen hill. The man wrenched himself from the remaining ice, and practically ran out of the room, his face bright red, from both effort and embarrassment.

Steve looked at Jack in a new light, not judging, but taking notice. Taking notice of the way his forehead creased when they agents began cheering, and wincing when some of the bolder ones walked up and cautiously patted him on the back. How he whipped around to Alex and began talking to him, checking if he was ok, asking questions. This kid could go both ways when it came to training. Either taking the aggressive and quick approach, or reasoning, and understanding. Steve wandered out of the room, deciding he needed to have a chat with Fury.

* * *

"Alex, I know it might be a little late to ask this, but who the hell was that guy?" Jack asked incredously.

His partner's eyes were still wide with shock, but the agent was grinning from ear to ear, his red locks falling into his eyes. "Jack! I can't believe you did that! You- that was frickin' awesome! He's Daniel, aka 'The Eagle' but nobody calls him that. It's a stupid name he made up himself."

Another agent walked by and grinned at a bewildered Jack, giving him a small salute.

"Ok, then. What is all that about?" Jack questioned, nodding his head in the direction of the passing agent.

"Well, he's kind of the Helicarrier's resident jerk, and he pissed off either every person in this room, or their friends."

Jack frowned, wanting to discuss this matter further, but he still had other questions. "So why did he pick us in particular?" Jack asked, cringing as a burly agent patted him on the back.

Alex's eyes turned dark, and looked towards the floor. "Well, uh, were were all kinda rookie agents, and still in training. At the time, we were working at a small SHIELD facility, and they gave us two hours to spar together every week. It was fine for the first few months, fun even. But Daniel, he had beat most of the people in the room, and really held his head high because of it, you know? Well, it was my turn. And he thought it was hilarious that I used a stick instead of knives or guns or something like that."

Jack nodded his head eagerly, beckoning Alex to go on.

"So, um, he said that he'll spar with a Bō as well. And, um, we did and he lost, and he got really mad, so he tried with knives." Alex gave a nervous smile. "And he couldn't get a hit in. So he got really really pissed off and tried to spar with the first person he saw." Alex's smile turned into a rueful grin. "Turns out Christine wasn't too happy about. She put him DOWN. So ever since that day, I've been the first one he turns to when he feels like punching something."

"Alex! What don't you defend yourself? You said it yourself, that you beat him!" Jack said, waving his staff around for emphasis. Some of the agents skittered away, though.

Alex's face turned solemn. "There's a strict rule about fighting in the game room. It's not allowed, under any circumstances. If there's even a whisper that there was a fight, Fury'll shut the place down for a whole month! and, well the only place Daniel tries to throw a punch, is, well, in the game room." Alex shrugged his shoulders.

Jack's cringe returned to his pale face. There had been a fight in the game room. He had frozen someone for God's sake! He desperately hoped that nobody will breathe a word about this out of the room.

Jack's somber thoughts were interrupted when he felt a small tap on his shoulder. He spun around, expecting to see another agent from the congratulatory committee, but all he saw was a very sweaty, and very nervous looking blonde girl. She was small in height and stature, with brown eyes and tamed curly hair. Jack noticed a group of people, who he presumed were her friends, staring at her from a distance. They must've put her up to whatever she was going to say.

"Umm, er," she stuttered, "uh, first, I uh just wanted to say thanks, about, y'know, before, but I also wanted to ask uh.." Jack leaned on his staff, his eyebrows raised. This oughta be interesting,

"Well, er, when you were about to, uh freeze that guy, uh Daniel, it got, uh really cold in here, and it was kind of um, nice, so I," she glanced nervously at her friends, who peered at her with wide eyes, "uh, we were wondering if you would uh, make it cold in here?" Her voice squeaked at the end of her stuttered sentence, and Jack gave her a surprised look.

"You want me to freeze the floor or something?" Jack asked.

The girl went very pale. "Uh! No! If you don't want to, I mean you don't have to freeze the floor, we were just wondering if... maybe?" The poor girl raced through her sentence, and Jack felt really bad for her.

He grinned at her, taking notice of how she held her breath and stared with wide, frightened eyes.

"Sure." He said. "That shouldn't be a problem. I guess it is really hot in here, I've been sweating all night!" He joked.

The girl breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at him, taking a few steps back. Jack noticed the rest of the room, leaning forward in anticipation, all holding their breath. Jack took a light step back, and surveyed the large room. There was more than enough space to ice a huge expanse of the floor without damaging the tables, chairs or snack machines that dotted the room. Jack decided that the large space at the back of the room, would do just fine.

He flew off of the ground, and to the other side of the room, ignoring the collective gasps that sounded as he did. With a deep breath, and a burst of energy, the frost spirit touched his staff to the ground and let the ice flow out from his fingers. He let the power be channeled through the staff and spread along the floor. It took about a minute, and pretty soon he opened his eyes to an icy floor and gaping faces. Alex was the first to take a running start, and flop himself down on the ice, in an attempt to cool his flushed cheeks. Everybody else joined in, either copying Alex, or sitting down.

For the rest of the night, Jack found himself surrounded by new faces and new friends. He and Alex chatted the night away, meeting new people and Jack realised that he was truly enjoying himself. He actually felt as if he belonged here, as if maybe, if he really tried, he could call this place a second home.

* * *

'MARP MARP MARP'

The obnoxiously us blaring of a white alarm clock shook Jack Frost from his slumber. He groaned in annoyance and slapped a pale hand onto the offending machine, turning it off. A few second later, Jack heard a banging knock at the door.

"Jack!" Alex yelled, "You better not make me come and try to haul your ass outta bed this morning, because I swear to god, you almost froze me to the damn roof when I tried yesterday!" The impatient man stuck his fiery-red head through the door, and narrowed his eyes at Jack's slumped form.

"C'mon, I know training has been sucky the past couple of days, but if it makes your morning better, today's the day you get to train with me! And you can take a guess at what I've got planned on your training schedule!" He taunted. Jack groaned once more, and threw a poorly formed, but very well aimed snow-ball at the blur of red he saw talking at his door. The door closed with a small slam just before the ball of snow hit.

With a hefty sigh, Jack stood from where he sat slouched on the side of his bed, and began to get ready for the day. It's had been three days since all the stuff that happened in the gaming room. Obviously, Fury wasn't too impressed at the huge puddle of water he found in the large room the following morning. He put Jack through a day or rigorous training, using strange machines programmed to attack him, and only him. Jack had actually found the event quite frightening, and ended up freezing the lot of them out of frustration and fear.

Fury didn't like that too much, so he assigned some agents to teach Jack some more basic defence manoeuvres, and they weren't as forgiving, or patient for that matter, as Coulson was. The first two were abrupt, impatient, and quite frankly, rude. They shouted at him to either stand straighter or put his feet in a certain place, and Jack found it exhausting. The third, though, Jack recognised from the gaming room, and he went a little easier, offering funny comments about the various tactics and poses they performed.

The next day, Jack absolutely refused to leave the comfort of his bed, and ignored Alex's relentless knocking. It came to the point where his partner had to actually come in to the room and try to rouse Jack from his rebellious slumber. The spirit had freaked out and in a half-awake frenzy, he had frozen Alex's sleeve. It really was a big stretch to say that he had tried to freeze him to the roof.

Training that day was much like before, only with tougher agents, and a lot more yelling. Jack had retired that night with a bruised body and a hell of a headache, and the only reason he didn't ice the door shut today is because Alex had mentioned that today he would finally be learning how to use his staff as a proper weapon. He wanted to be as good as everyone said Alex was, he wanted to learn how to properly use his beloved staff.

Something was going on around the SHIELD Helicarrier, Jack could sense it in the air. Everyone who was anyone around here knew what what was up, and it had them all on edge. Jack got the feeling there was a timer, counting down his time here, as if it were now or never.

* * *

"JACK! FOR GOD'S SAKE DEFEND YOUR RIGHT SIDE!" Alex screamed at him through the flurry of movements. It turns out Alex was another yeller, and Jack was getting sick of it. He had been in the air-conditioned training room a little over an hour now. The first half hour had been fine, as he and Alex had sat down and discussed how to properly hold the Bō, and what Jack's stance should look like when he swung.

Fury had been keeping a keen eye on them, even at one point insisting that if Jack were to train in Bōjutsu, he actually use a Bō, but Alex nervously explained that Jack's staff was a different shake and weight, and that if he were to switch from a Bō to staff after he had already trained with a Bō, his swing would be off, or something like that. Fury had only grunted in response.

But after the explanations were over and done with Alex Summers had gotten straight down to business. His process was to go slowly, and guide Jack through various swings and stances, and put them all together in the end. Jack was currently on his third match with Alex, practicing some of the 'slightly more advanced moves than the basic moves', as Alex had called it.

Jack went ok through the first two, but this time Alex had his focus on disarming your opponent. Jack's right side was open again, and Alex gave it a small tap with the end of his Bō. Jack almost screamed in frustration, and tried twisting his body to the left in order to avoid a well-aimed blow, but Alex took advantage of his precarious balance, and hooked the end of his Bō in the crook of Jack's staff and yanked the magical branch out of the winter spirit's hands. Jack was already off balance, and the extra activity made him fall over, flat onto his ass.

"Alex, I swear to god, take away my staff one more time and I'll-"

"Jack. Don't throw threats around. It's not a healthy habit. I was taught the only time you can give a threat is when the person has wronged you in a severe way. Otherwise, they are small and hold no meaning. It can show a sign of weakness, and you, are not weak. So get up, and we'll try again." Alex didn't speak in harsh of judgemental tones, he spoke as if from experience, with a tone of sadness in his usually cheerful voice.

Jack took the hand that was offered to him, and got up onto his feet. They sparred again, and Alex was trying to be as patient as possible, but he was getting a little antsy. Jack was practically tripping over his own feet in front of him. hHe needed to find another way to approach this. An thought sprang to mind.

"Jack, have you ever danced before?"

Jack's pale brow furrowed in confusion, and he shook his head. "I've only seen people do it."

"Well, when I learned to dance, I got good at it by watching my feet. I watched the person in front of me move their feet and followed the way they moved. So I want to try something different."

At the gesture of Alex's hand, the two moved back into position, with the two standing about 6 feet apart. "Now Jack, we're not going to hold hands or anything, but I want you to follow the way my feet moving. We're not going to move our hands, only our feet, and just watch the way I move as I go through the practice attacks, and follow."

Jack's brow was still furrowed, but he nodded his head, and focused on his feet.

Alex took a deep breath, praying that this would work. He put his left foot back, and Jack followed, taking a step forward with his right foot. Alex stepped back again with his other foot, and Jack followed. He took a step forward, and Jack stumbled a little, before regaining his composure and stepping back. After a minute, the two were moving in perfect unison, following each other's steps, getting faster and faster as they stepped and twisted around the room.

After a few minutes, the Jack seemed to get what was happening, and slowly, but surely, began looking up from his feet, and up at Alex, who was wearing his trademark grin.

"See? This is your footwork. The way you move with your feet completely depends on how well you're going to fight, if you're tripping over your own feet, or getting twisted up, there's no way you're going to be able to hold your own against your opponent." Alex said as they stepped through the moves.

After the 11th repeat of all the moves put together, Alex stopped and asked, "So, do you think you've got that memorised?"

Jack nodded his head, looking up and giving Alex a smug smile, his chest puffed out. "I had it on the 8th go."

"Awesome! Now pick up your staff and we'll try mixing in the hand manoeuvres."

* * *

Jack flopped down onto the sofa, his white bangs falling into his face. He was absolutely exhausted, and didn't even notice he had iced over the while sofa until Alex cleared his throat. Jack groaned. "I don't even care anymore. I'm done for the night." He threw his pale arm over his sweaty face and groaned again.

Alex smirked. "You've done so well today, I'm really proud of you. You still have a lot more to ,earn though, and I think patience is one of them, judging on how you almost snapped your Bō when you kept stuffing up the hand movements."

Jack could hear the smug smile evident in Alex's voice, so he didn't take too much offence. He just let out an exasperated sigh and shifted his weight to face the back of the icy sofa. Jack heard Alex scoff, and listened to his soft footsteps as he exited the below-zero room. As he lay side on, facing the back of the sofa, he thought about what Alex had just said.

He said he was proud? Of him? Nobody had ever been proud of Jack before. Nobody had said that they were proud of him for saving their friend, or helping them through the snow. But that was because nobody had ever seen him do it. Now, now he had people that could see him, people that were helping him. People that were his friends. Right then and there, Jack decided that he was going to put every ounce of effort into learning what Alex had to teach. He wanted to learn, he wanted to be able to kick every offending as out there, if it came down to it. But for some reason, that got him thinking. How was the research coming along with the strange statue? Jack got goosebumps just thinking about it. The sinister energy that the thing gave off was too strange to ignore. It felt so wrong, yet somehow Jack felt connected to it. Why would-

There was a knock at the door. Thinking Alex had forgotten something, Jack yelled for them to come in, and returned his thought to the mysterious figurine. There was a few brief seconds if hesitation before a beeping sounded and the door whooshed open. Heavy footsteps sounded in the far end of the living room, and Jack's brow furrowed. Those certainly weren't Alex's footsteps, they were too heavy-

Steve cleared his throat. To say Jack jumped would be an understatement. He damn well FLEW to the other side of the room, and collided with the wall in his haste, leaving the faint indentation of where his right arm had tried to brace his impact on the wall.

He recovered quickly though, and padded back over to Steve, grinning. "Steve! I haven't seen you in ages!"

Steve smiled lightly and settled himself down on the sofa opposite to where Jack had been lying on moments ago. "It's good to see you too. Seems like you were a little spooked, I, uh, apologise for, you know, scaring you."

The corners of Jack's mouth turned down to form a slight frown, and he floated over to the icy sofa and settled himself down. "I'm not the only one who seems a little spooked, Steve. What's going on? Is something wrong?"

Steve swallowed and sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"Jack, I was there, in the gaming room that night. I saw what you did to that guy. I'm here to tell you this, because I doubt that Alex would've. Jack, that was a bad thing you did, that night. Horrible in fact. Sure, it was funny when you did it to Clint, it was just us in that room. But that night, there were at least a hundred people in there! Not only did you freeze that guy, but you embarrassed him in front of the whole room. He took the next plane boarding agents and decided to work at a SHIELD base, instead."

Jack's eyes had widened in disbelief, and he swallowed the bile rising in his throat.

Steve continued. "But, I didn't come here to grill you. That night, you also did something I bet most of the other agents in that room would've done. You swallowed your pride, and let him go." Steve paused, waiting for Jack to look up.

With a nervous swallow, Jack looked up and met Steve's eyes. "Jack, there is so much potential in you, and I saw even more when you let that man go. Fury must've seen it too, when he watched the security footage, because him and I had a little chat. You have your moral code, and it's one every soldier, or even anyone learning how to fight, should have, and stand by. Fury has had far too many agents go overboard with their training, they killed without mercy, or remorse. Most of them were fired from SHIELD and became mercenaries for bad people. SHIELD ended up having to hunt them down and either kill them, or lock them away for the rest of their lives. I'm not saying that you won't ever kill Jack, because whether you like it or not, when you work for SHIELD, it does happen. But what I'm saying, is that you should always stick to the number one rule: never kill without reason."

Steve seemed like he had more to say, so Jack nodded for him to go on.

"Jack, your powers are amazing, but they are also dangerous. Fury can't handle anyone getting hurt while they're trying to train you to use them properly. So, because of my 'super-human' abilities, I have nominated myself. Fury thinks it's a good idea, because I can take a hit. I'll teach you how to use your powers effectively, and, uh, mentor you, I guess, about tactics and ethics of battle. Does that sound good to you?"

Jack wasn't confused anymore, but more-so excited. He got to work with Alex and Steve?! He got to be trained to use his staff, as well as be trained to use his powers in proper battle? He jumped for his answer.

"Of course it does! I can't wait!" He grinned.

* * *

**A/N - Hey guys! I cannot apologise enough for not updating for sooo long! I live in Australia and school has just started back up again, so I can't sit on my ass all day anymore :( which also means I don't have too much time for writing :( I will try to get a new chapter up ASAP with more stuff that happens I guess. I've got the story all planned out now so I actually know what I'm doing lol. Can't wait to hear from you! Tell me all the mistakes I made, and all the things I (hopefully) did right! Things you liked/disliked I want to hear them all. To all those lurking in the shadows, please Fav, Follow, Review! **

**P.S (If anyone out there is even remotely good at drawing, I NEED YOUR SKILLS! Contact me please!**


	9. Chapter 9

"1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4." The droning chant echoed through the vast space of the large training hall. If you looked from a distance, you would see a flame-red head dressed in black, leading a white-locked Winter spirit through the more advanced steps of Bōjutsu. If you got close enough, you would see the light trickle of moisture on the ginger, and the waterfall of sweat on the White-haired boy.

Yes, Jack had come far with his training in the past two weeks. He had made true to his promise, and put his blood, sweat and tears into improving himself. He was now what Alex called 'mostly intermediate', whatever that meant. At the moment, he had thrown himself into training, as usual, and was looking forward to another training session with Steve, which by the way Alex was pushing him, was coming up within the next few minutes.

"Good... Jack! Just... watch... your... FOOTING!" He shrieked, using his weight to push forward against the crossed where his Bō crossed with Jack's staff, quickly pull away, leaving Jack off balance, and swing his stick as hard as he could at Jack's poorly placed feet. That made 9 times in a row, one every day. Jack never it coming, and it usually happened too fast for him to counter it, or to fly up out of the Bō's path. He grunted, and pulled himself to his feet with a scowl.

The boy looked his partner dead in the eye. "Why."

Alex gave him a grin. "Your left foot was facing inwards a little too much. As your teacher, it is my duty to correct it." He paused at Jack's blatant scoff. "Plus, if I don't put you on your ass at least once a day, who will?" Jack's scoff turned into a sigh, which then turned into a cheeky smirk.

Alex eyed him warily. "Jack, - AAH! HEY THAT'S COLD YOU SICK BASTARD!"

Jack grinned triumphantly at the small patch of ice residing under Alex's armpit. He knew damn well that if Alex had the choice of a mission in a somewhat cold place, or the Sahara Desert in the middle of July, he would always choose to endure the heat. The cold was not a strong point for Alex Summers, and it made their partnership all the more interesting.

"Aww, Jack! I can't get it out from underneath my suit, it frozen to the fricken material! Now I have to melt it myself." He groaned. Jack snorted, but didn't say anything.

Steve enters the room, looking tranquil and peaceful as usual. That was until he saw Alex with his suit half-unzipped and his hand under his armpit, in an attempt to melt the ice. Steve gave Jack a deadpan look, and walked over to Alex.

"What did you do." He sighed.

"I knocked him on his ass for the 9th time in a row!" Alex answered, pulling his hand out of his suit with a wince and zipping it back up again. With a final narrow eyed glance in Jack's direction, Alex picked up his gym bag and exited them room. Jack caught the solemn promise in his green eyes and groaned loudly.

Steve raised his eyebrows. "What?" He asked.

"It's chick flick night tonight." The spirit answered glumly.

"How do you know? I thought Alex chose the movies randomly?"

Jack scowled. "I saw it in his eyes. He's going to make me watch that notebook movie, I know it."

"Well Jack, it's like I've taught you. Every action you take and decision you make have consequences. Whether you step on a land mine or an ant, that single step you have taken has affected something in the world."

"Yeah, I know. But what would you have done?"

The super soldier dropped his bag down and looked at Jack. "I would've moved my left foot outwards a little more." He replied.

Jack's mouth twitched. "I guess the super enhanced hearing does come in handy, doesn't it?"

Steve ignored his last comment and stepped into a basic defence stance. Jack grinned. He often thought that using his powers on Steve would trigger some kind of bizarre memory of being trapped in the ice, but Steve didn't seem to mind too much. As long as Jack kept it above the waist and below the neck, that is.

The soldier began the lesson with a brief rundown of what they were doing. They were skipping out on the actual lecture today, and getting straight into action. Jack begun the lesson by hurling an ice-ball straight for the middle of Steve's chest. The soldier side-stepped with a practiced ease. Jack grinned devilishly, and soon had Steve dodging flurries of loosely packed snowballs, using them to keep him at bay, whilst Jack tried to find some ground. It was hard though.

Steve seemed to take a step forward for every step he was knocked back. With an exasperated wave of the staff, Jack dumped a huge pile of snow on top of the super soldier's head, or rather his whole body.

If you were watching in the side-lines, as Fury was, you would've laughed outright at the cheekiness of the white-haired kid. But not the super-spy. He merely grimaced. He knew what is was like trying to dig your way out of snow. It wasn't easy, or pleasant for that matter.

He had been watching progress for some time now. Jack and Alex Summers worked rather well together, just as Fury had expected. Fury had a feeling about that guy. He knew he would be good to keep around. A spy usually learned to trust their gut.

Alex had proven to be an excellent teacher, and almost had Nick Fury considering asking him to teach Bōjutsu to the rookies. He, himself had certainly found the martial art extremely useful on more than one occasion. He hoped to God Jack would master the art as well, if he wanted to properly utilise that staff of his. The kid had a killer swing, but he wasn't quite there yet when it came to his focus. He was too easily distracted by the little things. He would stop fighting to stare at a chip in the floor, or a boot print that was bigger than his bare foot. It was so strange, but Fury figured it was a phase, so he put it in the folder that housed his lesser problems.

The black-clad Man stared scrutinisingly down at the pair who was well into a good sparring session. It was different from what usually went on, and that was because Fury had made damn sure of it. He had stopped Steve in the hall that morning, and given him strict instructions for today's training with Jack. Now, he got to sit back and see how his little experiment would play out. He wanted to see how the kid would respond to anger.

Fury watched as the agents he had prepared files into the room, yelling obscenities at Steve, and separating him and Jack. Jack was too stunned to move, and let himself be pushed around. Steve was 'fighting' off a few of the agents, who were all wearing black masks that moulded to the shape of their face. After a few minutes of struggling, Jack seemed to snap out of his daze and jump back into the writhing mass, where Steve was trying fight his way through.

Fury sounded a beep in the room, and exactly six hand chosen agents rushed forward and dragged Jack back, attempting to pull his staff away. The kid clung in to it for dear life, and could only watch as more and more of the agents 'overpowered' Steve.

One of them hit him over the head with a rather brutal amount of force, and Fury cringed. He knew Steve could handle it, though. But something strange happened. Even as the many agents continued to cling onto him like drowning cats, Jack began lifting up off of the ground, and started to glow.

'_What's going on? Why the hell isn't Steve fighting back?' _Jack didn't know the answer to any of the questions that rushed through his brain. He was getting angry, an anger he had never felt before, not this way. He struggled for control for a short while, but stopped completely when he saw Steve pass out. Someone had hit him over the head. His friend was _bleeding._

The spirit's eyes went wild, and all he saw as he rose into the air was a vivid blue, and the outline of the writhing mass of bodies. He didn't even feel the heavy weight of the string of agents holding onto his legs. Jack was on autopilot. He felt the rage build up beneath his hands, and barely registered the faint ringing of the alarm, or even the fact that the agents had dispersed. He pointed his crooked staff at the people that still surrounded Steve, and let all of the sheer rage and raw energy loose. Speaking bolts of what looked to be frost-lighting ripped from Jack' staff.

But he missed his target. How could've he had hit it with the ever vigilant Christine clinging onto his leg? She saw what was going to happen, and made a move to prevent it. She saw, that Jack, he...he wasn't himself. He was...different. The temperature dropped right away, his hair began to float up around him, and his pale skin had glowed _blue. _And his eyes... It wasn't right.

So as she saw Jack point the staff at the crowd beneath them, she swung all her weight forward, making sure that the atomic blast of ice hit the re-enforced ceiling instead. It was blinding. So powerful it cut out the electricity and lit the room back up again because to the sheer intensity of the light. That's not to say it didn't leave a mark. The titanium-enforced roof twisted and groaned under the pressure of the icy hit. A wave of sheer cold ricocheted throughout the room, knocking over the ranks of agents or sending them flying to the far walls. Christine felt, rather than saw Jack go limp and pass out.

Thinking quickly, she clung onto Jack, gripping him in a bear hug, and rolled herself underneath him just before they hit the hard ground of the training floor. All the breath was knocked out of her, and her vision blurred around the edges as she shoved the unresponsive kid off of her chest. Steve was already rushing forward, quickly checking over Jack before helping her up. He ripped off her black mask and she gasped for breath.

Embarrassed from his attention, she shoved Steve away and attempted to stand on her own two feet, but only achieved in falling over again. Her vision was spotted black, and she felt numb. The searing burning in her ankle was nothing compared to the pounding in her head. After a few seconds, she passed out altogether.

* * *

Jacks dreams were filled with hazy images of figures in masks and devastating ice-storms. He found it hard to remember much, but one thing stood out among the blurred images. Jack was standing on an endless ice flat, watching a figure in a fluttering black cape, taking slow, agonising steps forward, dragging a glowing blue sword behind it. The person looked downright sinister, clad in it's black armour. The armour itself was unusual. It was mostly black, but if you looked hard enough, one could make out the strange flashes of royal blue. The way the blue swirled through the armour and cape, made it seem as if they were alive.

Another striking feature was the glowing silver hair. The figure, Jack had presumed to be a male, had his head facing the ground as it stepped forward. His silver hair spilled down the side of his face, lightly dusting over his padded shoulders. The sword glowed brighter and brighter as he got closer and closer, and Jack could make out the flowering ice patterns that were etched along it's razor sharp length. In his dream world, Jack gasped and took a step back. They looked so much like his own...

It seems the figure was only moving slowly so Jack could get a proper look at him, because as soon as his eyes wandered, the armoured man rushed forward, stopping only four feet away from Jack and bringing his sword above his head. Jack tried to fly away, but it was no use. His feet were planted firmly to the ground. The figure raised the sword higher, and it glowed so bright Jack had to squint his bright blue eyes.

With a motion so fast, Jack would've missed it if he blinked, the man slammed the sword into the ice, splitting it straight down the middle. The cracking sound echoed throughout the land, and Jack felt himself shiver. He watched, frozen, as the figure bent over the sword, gasping for breath. After a minute, Jack peered down at him, leaning closer. With a sharp movement, the sword-man whipped his silver head up and found Jack's eyes. Bright blue eyes met copies of themselves, and Jack gasped again. He shivered at the evil feeling resonating from the man, and tried to look away. It felt as if he was staring directly into Jack's soul.

The ice was still cracking, and the Winter spirit found himself sinking as the ice began to fall away. The man stood up, and looked down at Jack, the wind whipping his silver locks about his narrow face. With a final crack, the ice fell away completely, and Jack drifted back into the abyss of darkness...

* * *

Jack awoke to the sound of a recurring beeping and the patter of footsteps across from where he was laying. His staff was leaning against the pasty white wall next to him. He groaned aloud, and tried to sit up, but the dizzy feeling in his head pulled him back down again. A woman dressed in white rushed over and shone a torch into his eyes, making him groan again and cover his face. He saw Steve, who he didn't notice was beside him, lean over his body, looking worried. Jack watched with amused interest as the woman shooed him away. Steve gave her his best puppy-dog eyes, but the lady wasn't having any of it. She sharply instructed the super soldier out of the room, "_IMMEDIATELY_".

With a final glare at the door Steve had exited from, she turned and walked over to Jack. Her no-nonsense attitude had softened a little, and Jack found himself relaxing from the tense atmosphere of the room. "How're you feelin' hun?" The woman asked warmly.

Jack tried to say he was fine, but it came out as a pained groaned when his head decided to thump painfully. The woman chuckled. "I thought so. SUSAN! BRING THE PILLS!" Jack winced at the loud sound of her voice.

A bored looking girl entered the room carrying a tray with water, some small white things and a sandwich. Jack's mouth watered at the sight of the sandwich, and he looked at the girl expectantly. The girl's bored stare turned to where Jack was lying on his bed, and her eyes turned wide and fearful. With rushed movements, she shoved the tray into the older woman's hands and bolted out of the room as fast as her feet could carry her.

Jack's face fell. With his pounding head and sore body mixed in with the sudden heartache of the fear he saw in that girl's eyes, the frost spirit felt close to tears. His throat closed up as he remembered what had happened. The people in masks, Steve, _the blast. _Was anyone hurt? Why did he pass out? How long had he been out for? _What the hell had he done? _

The woman in white sighed, and placed the tray on Jack's bedside table. "You scared a lot of people hun, my young apprentice over there is only frightened of the rumours. It's not like she heard what actually happened. Captain America himself explained what went on. He's worried about you, and I'll let him in once you swallow those pills and finish off that sandwich, ok?"

Jack nodded dully, and set to the task of eating his food. Whereas moments ago he felt absolutely ravenous, now he didn't feel like eating anything at all. He had hurt people, he just _knew _it. Where are they now? How badly were they hurt? The door clicked shut as they nurse, who had been writing down something on a clipboard, left the room.

A few minutes, and half a sandwich later, the door opened and Nick Fury stepped into the room. "Jack!" He boomed. "I'm glad you're awake, we have a lot to discuss."

'_You're telling me." Jack thought to himself._

The one-eyed master spy made himself comfortable in the small chair beside his bed.

"Now, I-"

The door burst open with a bang and an exuberant looking Alex rushed through the door, only to stop dead at the sight of Fury's glare. With a wide-eyes look of innocence, the red-head back out of the room, shutting the door with a soft click.

A moment of silence passed, and it was like Alex had never been there at all.

"Jack, you've been out for 4 days." Fury said simply, awaiting a reaction.

Jack shrugged. The agent raised an eyebrow at the seemingly uncaring kid. "That doesn't come as a shock to you?"

He shrugged again. "The most I've ever been 'out' for is over a month, I think. I'm not sure _exactly _how long. The director processed this new information pretty quickly. "Well, it was enough to make us all worried. The nurse says you're doing well. No concussions of broken bones. Just a lot of bruising."

"Did I kill anyone?" Jack asked quietly, refusing to look at Fury in case he saw how close he was to crying.

"No, just knocked em' out for a little while. The worst you gave anyone was a minor concussion, and that was because she was clinging onto your leg. If it weren't for her, a lot more people woulda' been in a lot more pain. So, I could say the whole thing went rather ok. I was expecting a lot worse,"

Jack's eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you talking about? These people came in and tried to take Steve, and you say you knew about it? What if they had of taken him and got away? They could've KILLED him! I could've killed THEM!"

"Kid, calm down. Trust me, Steve was in no danger. He could've taken down al of those people with a flick of his finger if he wanted to."

"Why-"

"Why didn't he? Well that's because I told him not to. In fact, he had no choice in the matter. It was a test, Jack. To see how well you respond to _fear. _We needed to see how you would've reacted in a surprise situation. We're sorry to of have scared you like that Jack, but that blast, that _thing _you did, it could save lives, Jack. If you learn how to control it, imagine what you could do! You could take down waves of enemies. I get that you don't want to kill anyone, I get that. What I'm saying is, if you learn to control you're new power, you can use it without killing anyone, and you can use it to your advantage."

Jack stayed silent. He couldn't, _wouldn't, _look Fury in the eye. '_It was a test. Nothing more, nothing less. Those were agents under those masks,' _ Jack was disgusted by the idea that he had hurt his fellow co-workers. '_Who was the girl who hung on his leg?" _Eventually, Fury got up and left, sighing to himself.

After only 10 minutes with his thoughts, Jack heard the handle turn and saw two cautious heads peak simultaneously into the room. He saw a flash of blonde and a flash of red, as Alex and Steve cautiously looked around the room. Probably cautious of the nurse. Alex grunted the all clear confirmation, and rushed forward.

"Jack! Oh my god you've missed out on so many movie nights. We'll have to spend all day catching up." He groaned. Jack smiled weakly, banishing his previous thoughts and focusing his attention on his talkative partner.

Jack smirked up at him. "Well, I knew you had one of those chick-flicks planned, so I decided to nap for a few days. Jack heard Steve snort from across the room. He still hadn't come over to Jack's bedside yet, and chose to stand by the doorframe, looking at his feet. Jack thought he looked like a kicked puppy.

Jack sighed. He was still mad at Steve, furious actually, but the spirit decided he had hurt enough people, and chewing out Steve for something he had no choice in, wouldn't benefit anyone right now. "It's ok, Steve. I know it wasn't your fault."

The soldier took a few cautious steps forward, looking unsure. Jack gave him a weak smile and he crossed the room, collapsing down into the chair Fury had occupied. Steve ran his hands through his sandy blonde hair and sighed to himself. "Jack, I don't know what to say. Fury stopped me in the hall, just as I was about to walk in. He told me the plan, told me not to hurt anyone and pretend to be overpowered by everyone else. Jack, I'm so sorry."

Jack yawned, making Alex yawn as well. "I'll kick your ass later Steve, I'm actually kinda tired."

Alex guffawed and Steve chuckled. "I'll be on my guard. Rest up, Jack. Fury wants you back in that training room by tomorrow."

Jack grimaced, and waved goodbye to the disappearing figures. He let his eyes drift shut.

* * *

His only dream started with bright, blue eyes. They surrounded his vision, made him shiver from head to toe. What was this strange feeling? He felt like he needed...warmth. In fact, he wanted nothing more than to curl up in front of a warm, crackling fire. Was Jack Frost, the bringer of Winter... cold? Jack blinked, and the eyes he was staring into disappeared. The cold feeling left him, and he felt normal again. Except for the strange prickling feeling on the back of his neck, that is.

Jack whipped around to the sound of a deep growl, and spotted the figure about 10 feet away from him. How could that be? He was difficult to see, due to the thick fog that had begun to creep in and wash through the empty land. The growl sounded as if he were right behind him. Jack blinked again, and the figure disappeared. Jack's eyes widened at the sound of another, more threatening growl directly behind him. He looked over his shoulder, only to find the sword man at the same distance away, but this time, both of his hands were behind the back of his head.

Jack tried not to blink this time as he watched man carefully, but eventually his eyes began to water, and he had no choice but to blink again. He turned automatically at the fierce growl behind him, only to find the figure holding onto his sword.

Jack blinked. He was getting rather tired of this, and kinda wanted to get on with it, and get it over with. Jack heard a terrifying roar echo throughout his ears. So loud, and so frightening, it made Jack kneel down on one knee, scratching at his ears. He was desperately trying _anything_ to make the sound go away.

All of a sudden, the air stilled, the snow stopped falling, and there was silence. Jack kept his head down, trying to recover from the sound that made his ears bleed, when he heard whispers. "_We're coming, we're coming, we're coming," _They echoed through the land like a broken record, sometimes overlapping the previous lot of words, sometimes leaving a gap of silence in between. The whispers began to mix together, creating a cacophony of noise, becoming faster and louder a deafening bang shot through the air, different from any other gunshot Jack had ever heard. There was a thud to his left, but the grey fog prevented Jack from seeing anything. All was silent, until the voices ripped through the air, all at once.

**"**_**WE'RE COMING!" **_

The frost spirit tried to scream, but his voice was raspy and soft. Jack looked up into the eyes of the figure once more. A deep, chilling voice that made him feel cold again, spoke. He didn't move his mouth, but the spirit heard loud and clear: _"We're coming, Jack Frost."_

* * *

Jack Frost bolted upright in his hospital bed. The digital clock above the door showed the time to be late, and instead of finding the room to be its usual crisp white, he found parts of it to be frozen. His entire bed, for instance, was covered in a fine layer of frost, as well as where the floor and bed legs met.

His half-empty glass of water stood frozen, and the ceiling fan had some impressive-looking icicles dangling from its blades. But the most noticeable thing, was the absolutely terrified looking young nurse, the same one from before, who sat crouched in the corner under the small, wooden desk. She was staring straight up at Jack, and was covering her mouth, trying to block out her screams.

Jack wasn't too sore anymore, so he got out of his comfortable frozen bed and cautiously stepped over to the frightened young thing. "Hey there, it's ok. I'm ah, sorry about this. It just happens sometimes." He said lamely.

She scooted as far away from him as she could, whimpering softly. "Please-please j-just don't freeze m-me."

Jack cringed as tears sprung into his ice-blue eyes. God, it was _him _that had terrified this girl to the point of begging. He had to let her know that he had no intention of hurting her,"Hey now, it's ok!" Jack reached forward to try and soothe her. Big mistake. She let out a piercing scream and Jack leaped away, flying up into the corner of the room by instinct. She wailed even louder, her uncontrollable sobs piercing through Jack's brain.

He had to get out of here. Surely someone had heard the crying girl already, and he didn't want to be here when they found her. What was he going to say? That he had a dream about a mysterious sword-man with silver hair and when he woke up the room was frozen and he found her like this? No, nobody would believe him.

Jack flew around the room, grabbing his staff as he went, and only managing to make the girl scream louder, and finally found an air vent. He struggled for a minute to get the thing open, and climbed in, just as he heard the handle turn. Jack half-crawled and half-flew through the metallic tunnels, desperately trying to get away. Everything was catching up with him. He could still hear the girl's screams school in his ears, could still feel the prickling stare of the Swordman on his neck.

Once he decided he was a safe distance away, Jack let himself rest. He sat down, put his head between his knees and cried. For the first time in over a century, Jack let the frozen tears flow. He remembered the fear he saw in the girls eyes, the fear he felt when Steve got taken away, the fear he felt even in his dreams. Jack Frost felt so weak, so... _ unable_. He wanted to hit something and repair it all at the same time. He wanted to wail and scream at the same time. He... he didn't know what he wanted, he just wanted everything to stop. All the bad stuff he'd ever done, he wanted to forget about. But he knew damn well how hard it was to forget something horrible. Oh, how easy it was to remember to horrible things and forget the good. It had always been that way for Jack.

Normally, seeing someone upset or scared like this wouldn't normally have such a big effect on the spirit, but knowing that he had scared someone so badly, that he had almost killed so many people only a short while ago, it really took a toll on him. He felt like all this training, and hurting people had stripped away his innocence. Had stripped away the person he had been for nearly 300 years. God, how long had it been since he'd been flying? Jack lifted his head and sighed. He needed to go flying, he needed to think. The only way he could do that was to drift through the clouds, and let the wind carry him through the air currents.

Jack shifted, and began crawling through the winding tunnels once more. He'd only done it once, and it didn't end too well. But Jack found that crawling through the tunnels was kinda like being invisible again, which is exactly what Jack needed right now. He needed a break from everything, and if he couldn't go flying, well, this was the next best thing.

Jack sat and watched a few agents fight, armed with only a small dagger each. A huge man, almost the size of Steve, was paired with a petite, small brown haired woman, she had large doe-eyes, and gazed up at the man with an innocent smile. His friends, who were lounging in the sidelines, jeered and laughed at the stakes of the match, but the man himself didn't seem too confident. Jack found out why after only a few minutes.

The tiny girl knelt on the larger man's back, digging her knee in between his shoulder blades and twisting his meaty arm well past his head. She let him go with a somewhat apologetic smile, and Jack kept moving. Like last time, he saw the various scientists with their noses buried in various tests and observations. They idly chatted to each other as they moved around the clean place, occasionally spouting some scientific mumbo-jumbo.

Jack found it comforting. He liked to just...watch. It made him feel at ease, calmed him down. He smiled as two of the people in white coats bumped into each other, almost causing them to spill whatever they were both carrying. The two backed away from each other very quickly, eyes wide and wary. After they were a certain distance away, they sighed in relief and ranted about how disastrous the mixing of the liquids could've been.

He kept moving, observing the day-to-day life of the various ranks of agents the strolled through the vast halls of the Helicarrier. Jack heard some juicy gossip about people he didn't know and even caught his name in one of the agent's conversations. It was strange to hear the group of men in front of him say his name. It made some of his more recent emotions come back, making the frost spirit shake his head and keep moving.

* * *

What the White-haired being didn't realise, though, is that the sound of the staff he carried in his right hand made a noise audible from the outside every time he took a step forward with his right hand. Alex Summers, ever since dashing into a half-frozen room with a distraught girl and an open hatch in it, had been following that noise.

Sometimes he would lose the sound, and dash madly into one of the closest rooms, only to catch a faint echo of the noise and resume his following once more. He was scared for Jack, scared of what the kid had possibly done to make that girl so damn frightened! It most definitely wasn't like him at all, and Alex knew it would take some serious talking to get a detailed explanation from Jack about the event.

Right now, for the 4th time, Alex had lost the trail of tapping sounds above his head, and, for the 4th time, madly rushed into the room closest to where he had heard the noise. Bingo. He heard the tapping, louder than ever this time. Alex must've been right underneath him! He walked through the room, filled with broken and ripped boxing bags. The tapping got louder as he went.

When the agent did find the source of the tapping, he was still deciding to laugh or groan. For the tapping wasn't the sound of a Winter spirit moving through the vents of the Helicarrier, it was Steve Rogers, struggling at the painstaking task of skipping a rope.

Alex chose to laugh at the stumbling soldier, catching his attention. Steve blushed a light shade of red and cleared his throat. "Uh, hi, Summers."

Alex wrinkled his nose at the use of his last name. "C'mon Steve, only Fury calls me that. Call me Alex, Summers sounds way too formal."

Steve grinned sheepishly as Alex continued.

"So, why are you trying to skip a rope? Thinking of an alternative to fighting bad guys? I'm sure the U.S. Skipping team would love to take you on board." Alex said, waggling his eyebrows.

Steve blushed again, but managed to give Alex a deadpan look.

"Actually, one of the agents recommended it. They said it helps to get you to be lighter on your feet. More agile, quicker, you know?"

Alex shrugged. "Yeah, I've heard about that before. You need a little more practice though." He grinned.

"Yeah, I know. It's a hell of a lot harder than it looks, I suppose." Steve sighed, as he folded up his rope. After he had finished packing away his gym equipment, Steve looked up. His expression changed from amused and weary, to confused and concerned. "Why'd you come here, anyway? Is Jack ok?"

The look on Alex's face showed that something bad had happened, and a few minutes later, the two found themselves rushing madly from the room and into the halls of the ship.

* * *

The tears had started again. Had started to freeze their way down the top of Jack's cheek before plinking onto the metal floor of the vent. God, he was so embarrassed. He felt humiliated, after catching yet another, nastier conversation about him. Rumors had already spread far and wide, it seemed. The main topic of the conversation was Jack's 'brutal' performance in the training room, but there were whispers of how Jack had attacked a young nurse, and had escaped the Helicarrier. The tears had spilled over when he saw a group of armed SHIELD agents, patrolling the halls on the lookout for a rogue agent with ice powers.

Jack didn't stop this time. He was still crying, but he knew if he stopped, he would cry even more. He just wanted to keep moving, try to block out the resurfacing memories. He just wanted to go flying. It always helped to clear his mind. Manoeuvring through the erratic currents of the wind eased his thoughts, relieved him of the tension that sometimes filled his body.

Jack sighed with relief as the tears finally slowed, and eventually stopped altogether. He spotted an empty-ish room through the slatted view of the air vent, and eagerly began pushing on the hatch in an effort to get it open. As his pushes turned into frustrated kicks, Jack thought about why he had been so emotional. The spirit partially blamed it on that awful dream he had experienced before he woke up. '_What was that anyway?' _He thought to himself.

The strange sound of a gunshot left him feeling uneasy. The thud that followed it didn't make him feel any better. Why did it all feel so ominous? _Who the hell _was coming? But most importantly, _who was that guy with the sword, and why did Jack feel so strangely connected to him?_ The being, whatever it was, was evil and dark. There was no mistaking that.

The dream itself was strange. Jack very rarely dreamt, and when he did, it was almost never good. Usually replays or twisted retellings of some of the nastier events he had witnessed through his lifetime.

Jack's mind flashed back to the sword, remembering the jagged frost patterns he had recognised decorating it's length. It wasn't unlike his own, simply darker, more scarier. It didn't represent the fun, youthful frost spirit that was Jack Frost, it represented a dark, ancient being, capable of killing thousands. Nothing about this guy seemed good.

Jack tried to convince himself that it was only a dream, and nothing more, but it as just so damn _hard _to shake the feeling that he _knew _who the figure was. _Knew _what it was capable of. _Knew _that it was downright sinister.

But where had he seen the familiar figure before? He just... it was right there, in his mind, but every time he reached out to grab it, it slipped through his fingers. It was very similar to his memories, which made it all the more frustrating for the spirit.

There was a buzz in the conversation of the agents Jack had been tuning out until now. He caught various names, something about a top secret project at an even more top secret SHIELD base. Jack listened, eventually putting the bits and pieces of the story together. Apparently someone had asked where 'Mr. Coulson' was, and a group of 10 or more agents felt obliged to answer. They had whispered rumours of Coulson being assigned to. A top secret mission for SHIELD's most top secret project somewhere at a top secret base. It all sounded very glamorous.

Jack began to move once more, his staff tapping as he went. The spirit had only taken a few steps when the metal around him was twisted away, a very-familiar red-head, and a grimacing super soldier. Thank god the agents had all dispersed moments ago.

Jack tried to fly away, using his most advanced escape manoeuvres to try to wriggle free of the grip Steve had on his hoodie. But it appeared that the student hadn't become the teacher just yet, and Steve managed to toss Jack over his shoulder and carry him to an empty room. Jack realised as he flew out of Steve's grasp that it was a lunch room that looked like it must've crossed paths with a small tornado. Broken lunch tables littered the room, overturned trays were scattered across the floor.

Jack flew toward the very end of the room, as two concerned faces stared him down. Jack couldn't tell through his frightened haze if they were angry, upset, worried, their faces kind of blurred. He didn't want to face them, couldn't face them. This was going to be one hell of a chat.

* * *

**A/N - First off, I want to apologise (again) for the series lack of chapters in this past amount of time. Just another serious case of writers block. Secondly, I want to say a HUGE big thank you to Brenne! For helping me out with fixing some of the errors in my story. For those who have commented, the story was originally in 1st person, and all that switching between 1st and 3rd is merely a result of crappy editing on my part. I will fix it up, but the days are getting shorter as school work stacks higher. *sigh* So it might take some time. I hope to have another chapter up soon. Sorry for all the angst in this chapter, I tried to write it as best I could, but I dunno, I personally don't like reading angst in a story (even though it makes it that much better) so I'll try to keep the angst on a down-low, okay? As always, any suggestions for where you might want to see the story go, and funny ideas that you want to see written, anything you object to, make sure you list it all in a review! You guys are seriously keeping this story going, love you all!**


	10. Chapter 10

Alex had been watching for the past few minutes as frost slowly crept from where Jack was crouched. His partner was obviously frightened; he seemed fine when they visited him last though. What had happened to make him scare that silly little nurse so badly? When Alex had questioned her, she clung to his arms and wailed about an evil man who shot ice at her when she tried to wake him up. She said that when Jack woke up, he tried to chase her again, but she got away by hiding under the desk. He then disappeared.

Alex had been utterly confused as to why something like that would happen. Jack was a good person. There is no way that Jack would've done anything like that. Maybe he was scared? Had Susan done or said anything to make him to that? Alex had been interrupted from his thoughts when the small girl wailed even louder on his arms. It had been obvious for a little while now that she has a huge crush on Alex. Alex tended to ignore it most of the time, but as the girl was hanging off of his arm, wailing louder and louder about the nasty, brute of a man as the minutes passed, he began to get a little sick of it.

Once again, it had been Christine to the rescue. "Alright, that's enough Susan. We have all the information we need from you, now leave Mr. Summers to do his job."

Susan had immediately snapped out of her small fit and gave Christine a once-over.

"And that would be?" She asked menacingly.

"It would be finding Jack Frost, who also happens to be his partner and close friend, debriefing him, and helping him through whatever has just happened."

Susan had just stood there, her mouth hanging open as Alex pried himself free and ran off, giving Christine a thankful smile as he left. He could always trust that woman to get him out of a tricky situation. Whether it be hostiles in the Sahara Desert or clingy young nurses, she always had his back.

Questions flew around Alex's mind as he stood just inside the doorway, looking awkwardly around the room and at Steve, who also seemed to be unsure what to do. After a little while, and a large circle of frost later, Jack finally looked up into the concerned faces of his friends. "Just let me go." The spirit whispered, his voice broken a resigned.

Steve's brow furrowed, "Jack, what do you mean, 'let you go'?

"I can't be here anymore, Steve. I need t-to leave." Jack said, his voice cracking mid-sentence.

Alex stepped forward. "We don't want you to leave Jack! You were getting to so good at Bōjutsu, and that new power, it was-"

Jack leaped up, his eyes blazing. "THAT NEW POWER ALMOST KILLED EVERYBODY IN THE DAMNED ROOM, ALEX! HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE HURT BECAUSE OF ME, HUH? HOW MANY PEOPLE... Jack's screams broke off into sobs, his shoulders heaved with the weight of his guilt and desperation. "It's why I c-can't stay. I have to leave...

Steve's face turned solemn. Oh boy, this situation sounded awfully familiar. The soldier can vividly remember lying awake at night, wondering just how capable he was now of killing. He could crush someone just by patting them on the back! How the hell was he going to keep people safe if all he could do was hurt?

It took a good few hits to the head to get him to realise that what he could do, it was an amazing opportunity to serve and defend his country. To stand up for what he believed in without worrying about getting the snot beaten out of him, of the people he loved hurt. But in the end, that had happened anyway. He had lost his best friend, and he would _never_ forgive himself for that. It was one of the first things he dreamt about when he woke up, was losing Bucky. Steve shuddered.

He had to make Jack realise that he was a part of a team now. He was needed, and he was loved by the people around him. Steve hoped he wouldn't have to hit Jack over the head to get him to realise this.

"Jack, listen to me."

Jack didn't look up, but he tilted his head more towards where Steve was crouched.

"You are part of a team now, okay? I know how it feels to come _so close_ to hurting someone when you didn't mean it, or almost _killing_ them with a flick of your wrist."

Jack now shifted to bury it deeper into his arms, his shaggy curls falling ever where his arms were wrapped around his knees.

"But even though people can be hurt, you have to keep moving forward with your training. You have to keep getting better, if only to protect those people you almost killed."

The distraught spirit looked up at Steve, the tears still flowing freely. "But what if I _do_ kill someone? What if someone gets hurt and it's _my fault_?"

Steve sighed. "Listen, I'm not saying that people won't get hurt. I'm not saying that nobody will die in the midst of a battle, because they will."

The soldier stopped, studying the look on Jack's face. He continued. "What I am saying, is that you can't let it stop you from fighting for the other people that are still _alive_. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Jack blinked at Steve's words. He still felt horrible, and guilt still washed through him in waves, but he did need to keep going. This place still had a team of scientists doing whatever they could to find out more about his past, and amazing friends that were training him for the future. He supposed he could stay a little longer.

Jack took the hand that Steve offered up to him, and let the super soldier haul him of off of the ground, which was now covered in a small layer of frost. Alex ran over and gave Jack a huge bear hug, effectively keeping him in place. Jack stiffened, not used to the sudden contact. How was it that he knew what a hug felt like, yet he had never experienced it before? Jack didn't know, but he hugged his friend back. Steve came over and wrapped his arms around the pair, effectively almost suffocating them with the sheer force of his squeezing, and lifting them off of the ground. He looked a little sheepish after they disentangled themselves.

It made a small smile overtake Jack's pale lips, and he let himself be led along the halls, as Steve and Alex asked various questions. At first they were small questions like "how are you" and "are you feeling ok?" Jack answered these questions as best as he could, smiling and nodding where necessary.

After a little while, the questions turned into "what happened exactly" and "why did you run?" Jack put as much thought into his responses for these questions as he could, and answered them honestly. Steve's face changed throughout Jack's explanation, from understanding to surprise to angry, and back to understanding again. Alex's, however, didn't change too much. He seemed to be resigned, as if had been expecting this.

Jack was getting sick of talking so as the group walked single file down the left-side hallway (for reasons unknown even to them, it just kind of happened that way), Jack found himself shuffling along behind Alex, who was waddling along behind Steve. As usual, Steve was glancing around at everything he passed, even, at times, peeking into the small bulletproof windows on the doors of the many science labs, and the occasional shooting range. Jack was amazed at how many rooms full of toxic chemicals and dangerous weapons the Helicarrier could house.

As Steve peered into another window, Alex walked straight into the back of him, causing the super soldier's face slide across the glass, as his bulky body fell from underneath him. Anyone who was working on the other side would've seen the squashed profile of America's Hero slide downwards diagonally across the pane of glass built into the centre of the door. They would've also heard a loud crash as Alex Summers went down with him, falling into the tangle of super soldier limbs that lay just outside of the door of the lab.

Jack couldn't help it. It was way too hard to hold in the laughter that was bubbling up in his throat. Alex seemed to be elbowing Steve's already abused face into the ground, as he was trying desperately to untangle his leg's from Steve's. His contracted Bō was twisted in the grey shirt the soldier wore; all the while Steve lay there with the right side of his face pressed to the ground and the left side of it being elbowed. He had the most dazed look on his face.

Jack's laughter finally burst free, it was just too funny. It didn't take long before the spirit was curled up on the ground, tears leaking from his eyes, and howling with laughter. The joyful laughter of the winter boy seemed to snap the super soldier from his trance, and he sprang up onto his feet, effectively launching Alex across the floor. He skidded at least twenty feet down the polished hallway, before coming to a complete stop at the edge of a very familiar looking agent's boots.

Jack had stood up, deciding that the pair needed help and had seemed to of have recovered from his little fit, only to witness the current situation, and be overcome by another fit of gleeful laughter. Oh, he tried to stop, but the boy found this to be funnier than what had transpired only a few moments ago. It was just too damn funny too see that rude lady who had 'escorted' him to his room after he woke up was now standing and looking around, wild-eyed at what had unfolded.

Alex stood up, the shade of his face almost matching colour of his messy hair. The woman stood up straighter and pinned him with a piercing glare. She may of have been shorter, but it didn't compromise the intensity of her gaze. If looks could kill..

"Captain Rogers!" She barked, her voice still sounded a little confused. "I don't know what has just happened here, but Fury wants to see you. Now." She pointed in the general direction of Fury's office, and the now-somewhat-more-alert soldier wandered off down the hall, muttering an apology to the bewildered woman as he passed.

"Frost!" The woman said sharply. "Get over here."

Jack, who had been watching all of the curious scientists poke their head up behind the door in an attempt to see what was happening through the glass, whipped his head back around to focus on the agent who had given him the order. He seriously considered sitting down and freezing the leg of his pants to the floor, so he couldn't get up. It would be hilarious, but it would probably get him and Alex in more trouble than he was already in. Not that Alex had really done anything, but Jack had a feeling he would be blamed anyway.

So Jack straightened his back and strutted over to stand beside a very nervous looking Alex. The woman stuck them with another bewildered glare and cleared her throat. "Mr. Frost, you may not be aware of this, but I am sure Mr. Summers is. As you may know, it is visiting week, very soon. Alex, your request to go to New York to visit your family for the day has been granted, but your duties are still clear. Agent Coulson has requested that Mr. Frost will accompany you, and Fury decided that it's finally time for Captain Rogers to get a taste of what the modern world looks like. He won't be staying half as long as the two of you will, so I trust that you, Alex, will show him all of the right places. So congratulations boys, you leave first thing in the morning. Agent Coulson is to give you both a safety briefing. Wait here for him" She instructed.

There was a lot to that little speech, but Jack's mind chose to focus on the only thing he really had any interest in. 'New York? As in New York, New York?" That means he would finally be able to get out of this god damned ship, he'd get to fly around an empty, open space, get to play with the wind once more. The wind had been calling him recently. Whispering through the halls, asking him to come and play.

Jack wondered if seventy years would've changed the city at all. Just how different would it be? Judging on the absolutely enormous city he encountered last time he went out flying, it would be a lot more different than he remembered. Whilst Jack pondered, Alex seemed to be bouncing on the heels of his feet, obviously keen to get going.

The brown haired woman gave them both a once-over before she turned sharply on her heel and strutted off. Jack noticed not one single hair was out of place in her bun. For a long while sometime in the mid-18th century, Jack had wanted to grow his hair out, if only to try and copy the elaborate hairstyles he saw on some of the men and women back in those days. Jack cringed as he remembered the day he froze the ends of his hair, and created long icicles that hung from his bleached locks, just touching his shoulders. But all they ever did was poke him in the eyes and get in his way. After over a decade of trying, his hair didn't grow an inch, so he gave up on the idea. He came to realise that long hair would only get in the way when he flew at top speeds, and was happy with the shaggy, pale locks he sported now.

"JACK!" The exuberant red-head who stood behind him yelled. "Did you hear that?! I get to see my family! YOU get to see my family! Steve probably won't, though, because he doesn't have too much time and we'll have to show him around first and then drop in for a surprise visit. Hell, they don't even know I'm coming!" Alex paced up and down the hall, seeming to be thinking deeply about something.

"I'll have to get them gifts, of course. What's a visit without gifts?" He paced even faster. "It'll have to be better than last year. Dresses just don't work for the girls anymore." He grumbled.

Jack's eyebrows shot up into his hairline. "Girls? As in, more than one?"

Alex stopped mid-pace and grinned up at Jack. "Yeah, three little nieces and an awesome older sister."

The agent continued to pace once more.

"You know Jack, I never thought I'd like any guy she married, she's my sister for god sake, but he, the guy, works so damn hard for those little girls, and he treats my sister right. Should I get him something too? I wonder what he'd like.." Alex continued his ramblings, occasionally grunting as he checked something off his mental list.

Jack entertained himself by creating his name in front on the floor. He had been practicing with Steve to try to train his frost into forming shapes at his will. The first thing he made was a circle, then a half a circle, then a square. Pretty soon the spirit was attempting letters and numbers. They were still very sloppy, but Jack was very pleased with himself. He was just putting the finishing touches on the 'k' when someone cleared their throat in front of him.

Jack almost jumped out of his skin, as he accidentally released a burst of frost from the tip of his staff, effectively ruining his masterpiece. He narrowed his eyes at the offending person, only to see Coulson standing there, the slight twinkle in his eye showing he was amused.

Jack grinned and casually leaned against his staff. "How's it been, Coulson?"

The agent allowed himself a small smile as he watched Agent Summers scramble over to Jack's side, looking at Agent Coulson nervously. "Are we doing the safety briefing now sir?" The red-head asked.

Coulson smiled. "Yes, Mr Summers." He gestured down the empty hall with an exaggerated motion of his hands. "Right this way boys."

* * *

Jack had always wondered what it'd be like to ride in one of the things he used to desperately avoid daily. The jet was a lot smaller than Steve's, but still managed to house Coulson, Steve, Jack and Alex and allow a comfortable amount of space to move around. The interior had three rooms; one with a bed inside, the other two had small leather lounge chairs and glass coffee tables along one wall. The opposite walls held a huge 60" flat screen TV, complete with episodes of the Super Nanny flashing across the screen in the room Jack was currently residing in. Jack watched the show with mild interest before getting bored and walking around. He could never sit still for too long.

He walked in front of Coulson, who grumbled at him for standing in the way, before turning his rapt attention back to his beloved show. Coulson reminded him of Alex, the way his friend was when he'd watch that show about the zombies. Jack found it very disturbing, and even as much as Alex had begged him to watch it with him, the winter spirit found it too gory, and somewhat depressing. Jack didn't mind the movies they watched though. Alex seemed to enjoy the movies he called 'Chick Flicks', and Slasher Movie Friday, but Jack honestly preferred Tuesday movie nights, when they would watch the movies with the twist endings. Huh. That reminded him, his birthday was coming up soon.

Jack couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that he was almost 300 years old. Jack tiptoed through the room with the bed in it, where Alex had a hand over his eyes and was snoring obnoxiously, and into the room where the super soldier sat in a lounge hair, deep in thought "Hey, Steve." Jack said.

Steve looked from the large book he held in his hands. He had been looking through that thing most of the trip, gaining invaluable knowledge of what had happened when he was frozen in the ice. Fury had delivered it to him when they were watching Men in Black, because Alex had thought it was ironic given the organisation they worked for. Fury had said it was a gift from Coulson. Jack had realised yesterday that Coulson hadn't actually met Steve yet, and asked him about it, suggesting he go and do it when they were on the jet. It turns out Coulson was a huge fan of Steve's! It also turned out he was extremely nervous about meeting his hero. Jack had let it go, promising himself not to bring it up with Steve, if only to save him from embarrassment.

"How are you, Jack?"

"I was about to ask you the same question! I know that you took the ship down in an attempt to avoid crashing over New York, are you excited to see it again?"

Steve scoffed. "Not from your partners description of the place. He makes it out to be this huge spitting monster that has busy streets and I quote: 'A wicked little pizza place a few streets down from this even better burger joint."

Jack scrunched up his noise in confusion. "Alex told me a joint was something I should never do or never try because 'they'll mess up my head'?"

Steve sputtered, looking at Jack with wide eyes before he laughed.

"No, Jack! There's different meanings for that word. The joint I was referring to means a place, and people usually use it to describe a restaurant or food place of some kind. The joint you were talking about is totally different."

"Oh." Was all Jack could say.

The two sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Alex strolled in and flopped down on the bed, making the super soldier laying on the very edge of the other side bounce off into the wall with a grunt. Alex lifted his face from the bundle of pillows and looked around with surprised eyes.

"What was that?" He questioned.

"It was the sound of my pride dying a little bit." Steve huffed as he got up and dusted himself up.

"Sorry Captain!" Alex exclaimed before letting his face flop down into the pillows again.

Steve eyed him warily before sitting down of the floor next to where Jack was leaning against him staff, watching the interaction with amused eyes. A voice came over the intercom.

"Attention all passengers, we will be experiencing some turbulence shortly before we set down in New York, so please remain seated. We will be arriving within the hour."

The next hour was spent sitting in the other room full of leather chairs and coffee tables consoling a frantic Alex, who was hyperventilating and clinging onto Jack like his life depended on it.

"You can fly." He had wheezed, not bothering to look at Jack. "So you're with me for the rest of this stupid flight."

Jack also mentioned the fact that his birthday was coming up soon, and shared the discovery of his actual age. It temporarily snapped Alex out of his terrified daze, and Alex mumbled something about overlooking that in the file. Steve congratulated him, and asked when it was. Jack said that it was the exact middle of winter, and quickly checking the date, Steve did the math.

Alex had begun rocking back and forth again, and Steve had told Jack that it was 'his turn to console him.' Jack sighed and the two switched places.

* * *

"C'mon guys! You're so slow!" the exuberant bringer of Winter called from above.

"We can't all fly, Jack." Alex shouted up to him. A few of the passing pedestrians gave him a strange stare, but not as many as there should have been. They were in New York, home of everything new and strange and different! A lot of people tended to ignore whatever you were doing and get on with their lives.

Steve trailed behind Alex, gazing at everything with wide eyes. This was all so strange! He had completely forgotten that a lot of people couldn't see Jack, and found it concerning watching him zoom over all of their heads, laughing as their beanies and hats flew off onto the ground.

He was enjoying himself, though. Watching Jack shouting when he flew around 'skyscrapers' (a very fitting name, if you asked Steve) and seeing Alex shuffle along mumbling about the cold weather was amusing. He found it enjoyable to wander around the streets, poking his head into tiny stores wedged into alleys, and browsing for toys suitable for Alex's nieces.

Boy, this city had changed. The little bar he had loved visiting had been bulldozed to make room for a rather ugly looking building called 'Stark Tower'. The swarms of people that clogged up the pathways wasn't too different, but Steve had nearly fell over when he saw a girl that looked to be 14 strutting down main in what he thought was the smallest shorts and tightest top money could buy. Alex had wave a hand in front of his face and explain to him the evolution of clothing in the past 70 years. "You think that's bad," he had said, "take a look at that brunette over there checking out your ass."

Steve had turned bright red and leaned against the side of a building, trying to hide his shame, but when the girl's eyes wandered elsewhere, he almost ran in the other direction. Alex had laughed when he realised what was going on, telling Steve to get used to it. Steve had shot him a concerned look before following him into another boutique.

They now wandered through central park, much to Steve's relief. It was quieter here. There were less people in business suits talking on miniaturized phones, less traffic, less exhaust fumes, less noise. Yes, it was much better. Jack was helping Alex carry the remote control helicopter, the chemistry kit and the painting set he had decided to buy for his three nieces aged 12, 9 and 5. Steve was carrying a few bottles of wine that made him cringe when he read the price tag, an all-in-one Swiss Army knife that came in a leather case for Alex's brother-in-law, and a beautiful bouquet of pink, white and purple tulips for the red heads beloved sister.

It was a beautiful day, Steve had to admit. Alex had a bounce in his step, and was walking faster than usual, claiming that if they don't get a cab before 12:00, they won't get one at all. There was also a car waiting for Steve at the edge of the park, which the trio were heading to now. Jack was entertaining Alex by taking every step as if he was walking on the surface of the moon, which the spirits partner found hilarious. Steve smiled at the two as they dawdled along. Alex had slowed down once he realised that Steve would be leaving soon.

Jack moon-jumped over to Steve, sporting a silly grin that made the super soldier smile. "Did you like your half-day out?" Jack asked.

Steve nodded, still smiling. "Yeah. It was a little scary at first with all the cars and the people and all, but I loved every minute of it. I'll admit, the park is my favourite."

"Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? I never knew that I had actually been here before, when I first went flying outside the Helicarrier. Of course, it was a lot different, being night and everything, but still the same city."

Steve smiled at him. "I bet there's no place in the world you haven't been, is there?" the soldier asked fondly.

Jack shrugged. "I guess not." He said with a touch of pride in his voice.

After another few minutes of walking, the three men carrying shopping bags arrived at an inconspicuous black car, with a familiar agent in a black suit and flame-red hair standing by the door.

Steve's jaw dropped open. Natasha Romanoff's jaw dropped open. 'They didn't tell me she was picking me up!' Steve thought. 'They didn't tell me I was picking up this idiot!' Natasha thought. All they had told the female assassin was that she would know them when she saw them. 'Dammit Coulson!' She was going to kill her handler for this. She was already stressed out enough. They wouldn't tell her where Barton was assigned for the next three months, then they had taken away her only day off so she could escort Mr. Big and Brave around New York City? If she was pissed before, she was damn well furious now.

"Get in." she snapped.

The assassin noticed the winter kid's eyes narrow in her direction. She shot a glare at him in return. Steve reluctantly handed the bags and bouquet over to Jack, who gave the flowers to Alex to balance out the amount of stuff they were holding.

The soldier cringed as he accidently brushed past her hand, and the glare she was currently focusing on Jack, tuned on him as he slid into his seat. She slammed the door, and Steve recalled the first time they had met. He was in the gym, attempting to run at top speed on one of the treadmills. The damn machine had stopped suddenly, forcing Steve to stop running and try to figure out the problem. Shortly after he had stopped, however, the treadmill had started back up again, sending poor Steve flying backwards into a certain red headed assassin, knocking her down. When he had gotten up and offered her his hand, apologising profusely, she had flipped him on his back, and stomped off. The experience forever haunted his memory.

* * *

"So is it in the secret SHIELD agent handbook to greet new people as hostiles or something?" Jack asked, exasperated.

Alex smirked. "That lady you just say black there, is agent Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow. She's one of SHIELD's top agents, ever. She can kill a man with a twitch of her fingers."

Jack snorted. "I highly doubt that, Alex. I think you've been listening too much to the group gossip."

Group gossip was a word Jack and Alex had made up to describe the twisted rumours that circulated within the SHIELD training groups. Alex had suggested the word when Jack was trying to explain something he heard, but couldn't think of a word to describe where he heard it from. Thus, group gossip.

It was Alex's turn to snort. "You know how I feel about group gossip, Jack. I wouldn't say it unless I've seen it with my own eyes. Me, and 4 other agents were assigned as her back up on a SHIELD mission to gather info on some mediocre Korean intelligence agency. SHIELD likes to keep tabs on people, you know?

Jack nodded, distracted by a leaf falling in front of his face. It twirled down and landed on the cement pathway, only to be whisked away again by a passing car. Alex yelled at the yellow vehicle, mumbling insults about blind cab drivers.

After standing on the side of the road for about 10 minutes trying to wave down a taxi, one of the yellow cars finally pulled up and Alex climbed in, taking the bags from Jack. Jack gave the strange machine and grubby driver a look of disgust and told Alex he'd prefer to fly. Alex looked relieved, and stretched his long legs out across the cramped floor. "Just follow the car." Alex had instructed.

Jack tried his damned hardest, but only a few minutes later, the cab took a sharp turn to the left, and left Jack to fly straight pass a tall skyscraper, making him backtrack and find the taxi again. God, there were so many of them. They were everywhere! Jack panicked, and darted between the moving cars in an attempt to find the one Alex was in. Jack saw a tiny bit of the grey shirt Alex was wearing, only to realise it was the grey of somebody's briefcase pressed against the window of the cab.

Jack sighed in relief as the herd of yellow stopped at a red traffic light, and almost cried out in relief when he caught a flash of red-hair in the window. Jack stuck his head down by the window just to check, and was glad to see Alex sitting there, trying to start up a conversation with the disinterested cab driver. Jack jumped up on top of the immobile vehicle and frosted a little bit of the top of it, to make sure he could find it again. Jack followed the yellow taxi with no problem for the rest of the drive. He planned on flying around a little more away from the proximity of the cab, but now he was way too nervous to leave it unattended, even though he could easily identify it.

After a 20 minute drive, Jack followed the cab as it pulled up outside of a comfortable looking two-story house, in a suburban neighbourhood. It has a little pathway leading up to the front doorstep, a huge shady oak tree out the front with a lonely little rope swing attached to its boughs. There were little garden lights with flashing little windmills along the pathway. It also had little shrubs growing along the side of the fence that separated their property from the others. It was a beautiful little place, perfect for raising a family. Jack fell in love with the picturesque place right away. He swung off of the boughs of the towering oak tree before floating down to help Alex with the bags. Alex waved him off, and hefted the goodies out of the trunk. "Hey Alex, you know they won't see me, right?" Jack asked as Alex paid the driver.

The driver took his money with a grunt and drove off. Alex rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guessed as much. You can go flying if you like, you don't have to stick around if you don't want to."

Jack shook his head. "I helped you pick out those gifts and I'm going to watch your niece's faces light up when they realise what a wonderful uncle they have!"

Alex practically beamed at the spirit. "I was hoping you'd stay. I know they won't see you, but I'd still love for you to meet them all!"

Jack laughed. "Of course!"

Alex grinned. "Showtime." He said with a little bit of a dramatic flair.

Jack rolled his eyes. "So they don't know you're coming?"

Alex smirked. "Nope! I usually only get to visit once a year, and always sometime around March. They still think I'm coming in another three months' time!"

Alex somehow managed to slide a key out of his pocket and unlock the door with his teeth before Jack could rush forward to help.

"Martin?" A feminine voice called. "Did Chloe open the door? I thought we locked it? Don't let her get outside!"

There was a scrabbling inside the house before a man almost Alex's height rushed into the doorway.

"Alex?" He gaped?

"Did you get her?" The voice called, coming down the stairs. The pretty looking auburn haired woman in a blue sundress marched down the stairs, only to join her husband in gaping at Alex.

She ran the rest of the way down and enveloped him in a hug. "Oh, God, we've missed you! What are you doing home so early?" She gushed. They walked over and sat on the grey couches. Jack followed, leaning against the wall across from where they were sitting.

Alex grinned sheepishly. "I applied for a second visiting holiday! They usually don't get accepted."

Her eyebrows shot up. "They work you way too hard, you know. It's got to be against some kind of law!"

Alex groaned. "C'mon sis, you know I love what I do, I don't really mind too much. I think I'll get more visiting holidays anyway. They've assigned me a new job!" He beamed proudly.

"Oh, and these are for you!" He said handing her the bouquet and the bottles of wine. "Oh, these are lovely! You didn't have to get me anything, you nutjob!"

"On my salary, I'm allowed to spoil my older sister."

He turned to Martin, who was leaning against the back of the couch, watching the exchange.

"I've got something for you, too!"

Martin looked at Alex in complete bewilderment as he pulled out the leather case containing the knife.

The man looked shocked as he pulled it out and examined it in his hands.

"This is amazing craftsmanship! I can't accept something like this!"

Alex snorted. Consider it a very manly anniversary gift. You guys have been together, what, 9 years now?

The man nodded.

"Congratulations!" Alex said cheerfully.

"On another note," Alex's sister said, changing the subject, "I think some girls will be happy to know their favourite and only uncle is here for a surprise visit."

Jack smiled as he watched the husband walked up the stairs, and Alex duck behind the couch with a mischievous grin on his face.

He turned to Jack, and mouthing "Watch this." And winked.

Three little girls ambled down the stairs, and Jack wasn't surprised to see that the combination of a dark auburn haired woman and a pale blonde man had given them three beautiful looking red headed girls. The youngest one, who Jack guessed to be Chloe, gave her parents a strange stare. "Are we in trouble? She asked.

Jack watched the hiding agent snicker behind his hand, and grinned at what was about to unfold.

"We have something very special to tell the girls, don't we Anna?"

The woman, Anna, smiled at his. "Yes, we do! But I think we've forgotten, haven't we. Do you remember?"

Martin shook his head. "Uh-uh. It's on the tip of my tongue, but," he said, knocking on the side of his head, "I just can't seem to remember what it is!"

The three girls groaned, and began marching back up the stairs.

"Hmm, maybe we can ask someone else. Alex, do you remember?" She asked.

Alex jumped up from behind the couch, still holding bagful's of toys. "SURPRISE GIRLS!"

The three of them froze, and spun around, quicker than a whip. Once they're eyes confirmed that it was, in fact, Alex, the screamed at a volume that even Jack, used to the sound of the rushing wind, found harsh.

"UNCLE ALEX WHAT ARE YOU DOING BACK! IT'S TOO EARLY ISN'T IT? WE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!"

One of the girls, one of the older one, has a light spread of tears splashing down her face. She buried her face back into Alex's shirt. "We missed you, Uncle Alex."

Alex's face turned soft as he patted her head. "Hey now, I'm here, aren't I, Bonnie? And guess what? I BROUGHT GIFTS!"

There was a general chaos as Alex broke away from the girls and help them up, laughing as they jumped up in an attempt to get a glimpse of them through the bag. He grinned down at them, and pulled away the first bag, a white one with cursive writing on it. "For my littlest niece, something I hope your creative little mind will love." He handed her the back, watching intently as she pulled out the gift.

Chloe squealed with delight and hugged Alex with one hand, saying thank you and rushing over to her mother, waving the paint-set in her face rambling about what she was going to paint. Alex's sister widened her eyes, and sent Alex a worried look. He only laughed. "Don't worry, sis, it comes out of clothes!"

The next up was Bonnie, who had been watching Alex with a gleam in her eye, intent on the bags. He smirked down at her, making her widen her dark brown eye. "Eager, aren't we?" He asked, ruffling the girl's hair. She nodded quickly, still looking at the bags.

Alex handed her a purple and yellow bag, which she almost tore open in her attempt to get to the treasure inside. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree, and she squealed with delight, holding up the Chemistry set proudly. "Uncle Alex! It's the newest one! How did you know I wanted this one?" She half-screamed.

Alex cringed, still smiling. "Hey, I always know what you want, remember? He said, tapping his forehead.

She nodded wildly and rushed off to show her father. He eyed it warily. "Uh, Alex? This says 14+ on the side. Is it really safe for an 8 year old?" He questioned, the dread clear in his tone. Alex only shrugged. "She's a big girl!"

The other girl, who Alex had addressed as Petria, waiting patiently for her gift. She had a peaceful look about her, as if she would fall over at any given moment, and simply gets back up again, smiling. The 9 year old seemed to be simply enjoying the time she had to spend with her uncle. Jack found himself glancing at every minute or so, just to check if she was still the same, or if her facial expression had changed much. It hadn't.

Alex whipped out a flashy looking remote control Helicopter, and gave it to the lithe girl. She eyed it curiously, and took it gingerly from his hands. Alex and Jack held their breath in anticipation, leaning forward to see if the gift they had painstakingly chosen would be appreciated.

The little girl simply stared at the shiny plastic packaging for a few moments before giving a broad grin, and hugging Alex tightly around the waist. Alex's green eyes widened in shock, as if he didn't expect such affection from the child, but returned the hug regardless. The two broke away, and Petria scurried off to go and play with her toy.

Anna piped up. "Hey, uh… Alex?" She asked.

Alex looked up from where he was leaning over Bonnie's shoulder as she ripped out her chemistry set. "Yeah sis?" He questioned.

"I really hate to ask this, but Martin just got called into a work emergency," she said, gesturing to the Martin-less living room, "and I have to quickly run to the store to get some supplies for dinner. Would you, ah, mid watching the girls?"

Alex looked utterly confused. "Huh? You want me to watch them?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure I can trust you for 30 minutes, can't I?"

Alex beamed. "Of course you can! I'd be happy to spend some time with them. I don't have weeks this time; I'm only here for the day, so the more time the better."

She gave him a weary smile. "I appreciate it." She turned to her children. "Girls!" she instructed. They all looked up from where they were disassembling their toys from their packages. "I have to go to the store for about half-an-hour, be good for Uncle Alex."

Jack watched as she exited through the door, and turned to where Alex was quietly chatting to Petria, who was leaning again the wall across from Jack, listing intently to the words that left Alex's mouth. The other girls wandered over and formed a small gathering. The spirit watched sadly the three children and Alex laughed and gossip, swapping stories and figuring out their gifts. It wasn't a foreign feeling to Jack, simply watching people doing things.

In fact, it used to be a regular routine, until he was frozen, of course. His time on the Helicarrier had almost made him forget what it was like not to be seen. It was nice while it lasted, he guessed. The whispers from the group increased and Jack noticed Alex pointing frantically to where he was standing. The girls looked at the empty wall, wondering what was so special about it.

Their strange uncle got up and began talking to the wall, having a two-sided conversation with it. The girls thought it was very strange. They knew their beloved uncle was a little eccentric, but this was just too weird. He had been ranting about someone called 'Jack Frost' and saying he was in the room with them right now.

Bonnie didn't believe it until her older sister, Petria gasped. Everybody's head whipped around the quiet girl. Her mother had told her that Bonnie's sister was something called 'mute', which means she couldn't speak at all. She could cough and sneeze and make noises like that, but something like a gasp was very rare for her.

She stood up, shaking, and staring at the space Uncle Alex was gesturing wildly to. A small patch of ice began to form on the tiled floor, and Bonnie watched the small butterfly draw itself, before rising slowly, and hovering above a single tile. Bonnie blinked slowly in amazement, and carefully thought over her Uncle's words. "Jack Frost is standing right over there! He can fly, and control the wind, and make ice from his very fingertips!"

The two sisters blinked simultaneously, and slowly Jack appeared before their very eyes, laughing as he controlled the flying creature. He made it flutter around Petria's head, and settle delicately in? her outstretched hand. The small creature fluttered up to the ceiling, and burst into a frosted cloud, making it snow in the large living room.

The girls, utterly awestruck, stepped forward, slowly, and very unsurely, as their Uncle patted 'Jack Frost' on the shoulder. Sure, they'd heard of Jack Frost before, their mother had warned them that he nips at their noses in winter, making them runny and red. But the person standing before them didn't look like he'd do something like that. And when he turned his brilliant white smile onto them, they decided that this must be a different Jack Frost.

"Hey there girls!" Jack chirped, jumping up into the air.

"Did you like that little trick?" He asked. They both nodded eagerly, their eyes wide.

Jack smirked. "Watch this."

He floated higher, above Alex, who was currently talking to a smiling Petria. He settled very carefully on top of the agent's head, so softly that Alex didn't even feel it. Jack began to make silly faces, waving his staff around, poking his tongue and pretending to use his partner's head as a trampoline, without actually touching him.

The girls giggled hysterically at the mischievous spirit, catching the attention of their uncle.

He gave them a strange look. "What are you laughing at?" He asked quizzically.

Jack brought his finger to his grinning lips, signalling the children to be quiet. Petria looked up and noticed Jack, and covered her mouth with her hand. Chloe was now in fits of laughter as jack continued to pull more and more faces above and unsuspecting Alex, turning as he turned, making sure that Alex didn't catch him in the act. Bonnie joined Annie in her laughter and Petria grinned openly. The laughter died down in a moment of silence as the three girls and Jack held their breath.

Alex still didn't get what was happening, until Jack floated a few inches up, and lightly tapped Alex of the head with his bare foot, catching his attention.

Alex looked amused as the pieces finally clicked into place, and all three girls showed their amusement, whether it be high-pitched giggles, snorting laughter, or a broad grin, they thought Jack's discovery was hilarious.

The next twenty minutes was spent chasing Jack around the living room with the remote control helicopter, each of the girls taking turns as gave them lessons on how to control it. Jack always caught the helicopter before it went down, to make sure it lasted the rest of the day.

Petria finally took the elusive spirit down with a swift hit to the back of Jack's head, making him drop onto the floor. He couldn't get up for a few moments, due to the heaving laughter invading his chest. Alex hauled him off of his feet, just as Anna walked through the door. The living room was relatively intact (thank god), and everybody stopped what they were doing to welcome Anna home.

Alex had explained to the girls about the fact that only certain adults could see Jack, and it took a lot of convincing for even Alex to believe he existed. Alex explained how he had to sit down for nearly an hour to be thoroughly convinced of the person he was going to work with. Both Jack and the girls had listened in intently; all of them never had heard the story before.

The welcomed their mother home, just as Alex's cell rang. He was enjoying the moment, and really didn't want to be dealing with work right now, but they would assume something was wrong if he didn't answer, so he pulled it out of his pocket with a sigh.

"Agent Summers," Coulson said into the cell.

Alex perked up. This was one of the big bosses, he was very glad he had answered this call. Coulson had the tendency to call in retrieval teams if you missed a phone call.

"Mr Frost needs to report now; you have to report for a debriefing. Nothing too serious, but we just sent two being who hadn't seen the world for 70 years with you as their only guardian, so we just want to see how it went. There is a car waiting for you outside your sister's home, please go there immediately." He instructed before hanging up.

Alex's sighed, running a hand down his face, and looking wearily at Jack. "Sorry girls, duty calls early. We- I have to go back to work." He said, flicking his eyes over to Jack and hoping the girls would get the message.

The girls looked upset but nodded their heads solemnly. "We know. Are you still going to visit later?" Chloe asked.

Alex stepped forward and gave her a hug. "Three months' time, kiddo, be good."

He hugged the rest of them, finally getting up to give his sister a warm hug. "You and Martin must be doing something right. Those girls are getting bigger every time I see them!"

She snorted. "I'll take that as a compliment. We'll miss you, bro."

He smiled sadly at her. "I'll miss you more, my girls." He replied, getting one last look at them. Before slipping out the door. Jack followed him into the car.

"Thanks." Jack said quietly.

Alex turned to look at him in surprise. "What for?"

"For.. making them... see me."

Alex grinned, slapping Jack on the back. "Anytime."

* * *

Jack was bored out his mind, wasn't in the mood for talking, and was starting to regret his decision to ride in the car instead of flying. He thought he had forgotten about that nightmare, but some simple, stupid little thought had triggered his memory to remind him of the frightening experience. It was still vivid in his memory, still something he couldn't place. He felt as if it was on the tip of his tongue, yet he was not able to remember whatever the hell it was. And it was very frustrating. He sighed, cringing at what had happened after the incident.

He had never, ever, once used his powers in his sleep. No matter how badly he slept, or how strange his dreams got, he kept control of himself. It made him visibly shake to think that he had no control of what had happened. He had had that dream twice, so why didn't he have control the second time? He still had this overwhelming guilt inside him, and no matter what Steve said, Jack had a feeling that he would have to get through this himself. He was still on edge.

The black sedan came to a stop outside one of the building he had flown around before. A rather… interesting looking building that didn't seem quite finished yet. There were trucks outside delivering what looked to be thousands of cardboard boxes, and plastic still covered the windows. There were also construction workers on the very top, who seemed to be installing some kind of equipment into the roof.

Alex had explained somewhere along the way that Coulson wanted him somewhere for a debriefing, which Jack thought was utterly ridiculous. The car drove away with an annoyed looking Alex inside, leaving Jack standing awkwardly in front of the tower, shielding his eyes from the sun.

"Sunglasses?" Coulson offered from beside the spirit, startling him a little.

Jack eyed the offered eyewear, before refusing.

Coulson tucked them back into his coat pocket. Jack sighed. "What am I doing here Coulson?' he asked wearily.

Coulson simply smiled at him, and began walking toward the already crowded entrance. Jack followed, and they squeezed through the swarm of busy people, through the lobby and into the elevator.

"Well, Jack, we're going to visit a particularly stubborn man, by the name of Tony Stark. He's rich, he's handsome, and he's a genius who invented a suit of armour, that is weaponized, and that he uses on his own accord, which puts him on SHIELD's 'to-keep-an-eye-one' list. You are simply to observe, and see how things are done."

After a strange ride in a metal box, the two arrived at the top floor, where a red-headed woman pored over stacks of paperwork. Coulson cleared his throat.

She turned sharply, catching eye of Coulson. "Phil!" she exclaimed, walking forward and greeting the man with a warm hug. "What brings you here?"

"I'm here to drop off something to Mr. Stark. It's important information on a classified project, something he's has already had some… past involvement in. Not that'll he'll read it of course."

She sighed. "No, he most-likely won't. He'll probably just get Jarvis to scan it and tell him the important stuff."

Coulson opened his mouth to speak, just as a man wearing a huge metal suit came strolling in. The suit sighed. "What is he doing here? Thanks for the help guys, I'm sure you mean well, but I'm sure poor Jarvis doesn't want another 40 000 word file to scan.

A voice came from the ceiling. "I would not mind sir."

Jack noticed the mask slide up to reveal the annoyed face of a man. 'This must be the guy Coulson was talking about.' Jack thought.

Tony rolled his eyes at the politeness of his AI. "Sir, if I may report this, there seems to be a strange energy source residing beside Mr. Coulson."

The man in the suit turned around, peeking curiously to where Coulson had moved in front of Jack. "What are you hiding there, Coulson? Scan it, Jarvis."

"It seems to be humanoid sir, and is carrying an elongated weapon. The weapon is giving off an equal amount of energy as the being."

"What is this, Coulson?"

Coulson didn't miss a beat. "His name is Jack Frost. He was found in the ice, frozen alongside Captain Steve Rogers. He is not… visible to most. He is observing"

The man snorted. "Please. You're trying to tell me that there's an invisible old-guy in here?"

Coulson raised an eyebrow. "What else could your AI be detecting? If I wasn't absolutely sure what it was, SHIELD would be here by now."

Tony Stark blinked at the man. Coulson spoke again. "I'll describe him to you, if you really can't see him. He's got white hair, pale skin, a black SHIELD suit on, not wearing any shoes, and he's carrying a staff."

Tony blinked over and over again, as Coulson's description perfectly matched the figure that was appearing right in front of his eyes. Coulson looked over his shoulder, at the confused looking spirit, then back to a gaping Tony Stark. He smirked.

"His name, is Jack Frost." Coulson glanced back, and gestured for Jack to introduce himself. Jack gave a small wave. "Uh, hey. I'm Jack." He said lamely.

"Huh." Was all the genius could say.

He studied Jack, taking a small step forward. Pepper had left the room at some point, probably to get another delivery of paperwork. "So you're Jack Frost? You nip on people's noses and leave snow everywhere?"

"Um, yeah. That's me. I don't actually bite people noses, though. I'm not really sure where that came from."

Stark grinned at the kid, before patting him lightly on the back, wary of the Iron Man suit. "Well, Jack Frost, I'm not sure what you're doing in my tower exactly, but welcome. Need anything? Water? A glass of whiskey perhaps?"

Coulson stepped forward. "I'm not really sure that would be-"

A loud whooshing sound echoed throughout the room, and a swirling portal appeared. Jack yelled, and flew up into the air.

"What are you doing here!?" He yelled at nothing in particular.

Jack continued ranting and shouting insults at the strange thing. "Jack!" Coulson shouted. "What the hell can you see that we can't?"

Jack waved his staff at the thing he was shouting at. "It's the god damn Easter Bunny, saying he's here to take me in."

Jack turned back, spitting insults at the thing. Stark got into action, his faceplate sliding down. Jack seemed be struggling, his arms now pinned down by his sides, his legs thrashing and kicking at something he couldn't see.

"Sir!" Jarvis said urgently. "There are now three additional energy sources within the room!"

Stark couldn't believe his eyes when he witnessed the giant rabbit holding onto Jack jump through the portal, followed by two hulking things. He didn't think, he acted. He dove straight through the portal, just as it closed…

* * *

**A/N: **Hey guys! Miss me? I rushed to finish this, my longest chapter yet, to celebrate 100 followers! It's so awesome that this happened just before the tenth chapter, and only a day before my birthday! Can you imagine better circumstances! I literally can't thank you all enough for all your reviews and support and criticism on my story! I hope you like the events in this chapter, it was hard to write! The story's speeding up! How did you like Alex's Brother/Uncle-ness? Please review, tell me any mistakes I made, what I can improve, ideas you want to see written, what you liked! And I am sorry I haven't replied to reviews in a while, but I promise to try! Please review!


	11. Chapter 11

Bright flashing lights and whirring noises invaded the sound receptors in his suit. Tony groaned at the thing that hit the back of his head and sat up in his suit. He checked it over in the sitting position he was in, only noticing a few scratches here and there. Nothing was too damaged.

He heard tinkling bells all around, but couldn't see anything that was making the noise. He looked around, seeing things he couldn't describe whizzing above him around the huge ceiling. The hulking white beats that accompanied the rabbit through the portal wandered about, warbling to each other as they worked.

The kid, Jack, floated into his vision. "Are you ok? Why the hell did you follow me you psychopath? What the hell were you thinking?"

Even though he was in a strange place with seemingly magical creatures straight out of a fairy-tale book, the Man of Iron fixed the winter spirit with his best deadpan stare. "Kid, you walk into my tower with Coulson and a portal opens. You start screaming at something we can't see, and then whatever the hell that thing was, picks out up and jumps through the portal. It's not like I'm not going to jump in after you."

Despite the circumstances, Jack rolled his eyes. He liked this man. 'Tony Stark' commanded the attention of the entire room; his presence was larger than life. The spirit could already tell the man had a wicked sense of humour, yet chose to voice it by basically being a sarcastic ass. Jack could learn to like him.

"Speaking of thinks you can't see…" Jack muttered at Tony as he stared up from where he was crouched by the Iron Man suit. "I know you're going to think I'm crazy, but there's a hell of a lot more for you to see."

Stark looked a little taken aback before fixing Jack with a serious stare. "Jarvis?" He asked.

"It seems Mr. Frost is correct. There are four immensely powerful energy sources in close proximity, over two hundred low sources, and hundreds more only the size of your forearm, sir."

Tony actually looked a little frightened as he stared around. The only thing he could see was the huge rabbit from before, leaning against a pole, whispering to the invisible energy sources, occasionally shooting a glare in their direction.

"Kid, describe them to me."

Jack swallowed. "Do you want the short description, or the one where I describe them in detail, and you have to work it out for yourself?"

Tony hesitated. "Short one."

"Well, right now, you can probably only see the Easter Bunny, but you can't see who he's talking to, right?"

Tony nodded, not taking his eyes off of the 6ft rabbit. "Well, he's having a rather angry conversation with Santa Clause, his real name's North, The Tooth Fairy or Tooth, and The Sandman, or Sandy. By the looks of, they're discussing what to do with you. You weren't supposed to be here. I've never met them before. I only met with Bunny once, flew right into him. He wasn't very happy. His real name's Aster, by the way"

Tony didn't want to believe it. He tried to stop his eyes from forming the figures that materialised before him. Jarvis wasn't helping, as he described the exact size, height, and shape of them. He saw North first (Tony refused to refer to him as Santa), then Tooth, and after a rather strange description from Jarvis, Sandy appeared. Aster took a menacing step forward when he noticed Tony staring at the group. Tony immediately raised his arm up, aiming his repulsor at the overgrown animal.

"What do you think you're doing there, mate." The thing growled, with an Australian accent.

"It talks…" Tony whispered astonishingly.

Jack snorted. "Yeah, way too much if you ask me."

"Lower your weapon!" The rabbit snarled. The rest of the energies turned to stare at the situation that was unfolding before their eyes. They all took on a fighting stance.

Jack groaned. "Tony!" Jack whispered urgently. "What?" The man hissed. "We're dealing with ancient beings over hundreds of years old, with a vast knowledge of magic and magical weapons. For all we know, they have the ability to disable that suit in seconds."

The man turned, his suit making whirring noises as he did so. He was only adjusting his position to get a better aim at the group, particularly Aster. Not that Jack would mind if the guardian got his fur singed off, but it was create a chaos if Tony were to shoot. And that's not what they wanted right now.

"Listen!" Jack hissed. "Look!" Tony looked around. "They have an army of huge Yeti's at their disposal, they can open portal's that lead to anywhere in the world, they were able to access your tower without any prior warning. It just happened. We're outnumbered, and outgunned. I don't think they'll kill us, but they can do some serious damage. So if you want to get out of this unscathed, the wise thing to do if put your damn hand down, stand up, and we'll try to figure out why the hell they kidnapped me in the first place." Jack finished, shooting a dirty look in the direction of the guardians."

He was already panicked, as he had a sinking feeling that he knew why they had kidnapped him.

Tony sat there on the floor, sitting upright, and his legs out in front of him. Jack thought the suit of armour looked like a little kid who didn't get his way and had thrown himself down onto the floor in the midst of a tantrum. After a minute or so of contemplating, the Man of Iron stood up, looking at Jack before flipping his face mask up.

A collective sigh rang throughout the room, as the Guardians dropped their defensive stance slightly, and Jack and Tony stood there, staring.

"Ok kid, talk. Where are we? Who are those people, and why did they take you?"

Jack thought about his explanation, keeping a wary eye on the guardians. The angry look had disappeared from the Tooth Fairy's face, and she fluttered over the shoulder of North curiously, trying to catch snippets of the conversation.

"Well, I've only actually been in this place once before. It's Santa's Workshop, hence all of the elves and Yeti's. It's a huge place, and I'm pretty sure it's protected by a magical barrier, so people can't really see it. It also means you can't blast your way out." Jack said, giving a pointed stare at the suit's glowing hands. "What are those things, anyway?"

"Repulsors. Powered by this thing," Tony said, tapping the bright light in his chest. "They shoot blasts of energy at whomever I deem a threat. Continue."

"They're called the Guardians. They guard children I think, protect belief of something?" Tony nodded. "And I have no idea why they took me, but I have the feeling we're about to find out." Jack said eyeing North, who had taken a step forward.

"Who are you?" The man said menacingly, pointing a sharpened sabre at Tony, his voice sporting a Russian accent.

"I'm Iron Man." He said simply, taking a step forward. All of the guardians stepped back into a highly guarded defensive stance, and Jack looked for holes in their defense as Steve had taught him to do. "And why did you open up a portal in my tower, and kidnap my friend here?" The curious tone of the playboy's voice laced with an underlying threat.

Aster stepped forward. "Because he's a dirty stinking thie-"

"Bunny. That's enough." North said sharply.

"You will be treated as threats until you agree to peace in my workshop. Do you agree to lay down all of your weapons and come with me, so I can explain the situation?"

"Sorry Sabretooth, but I can't really take this suit off. And by the way winterboy over there is hanging onto that staff of his; I doubt he feels any differently. We won't fire them, or use them, as long as we're not treated as hostiles, and the big bad Kangaroo over there stops staring at us like we'll jump him any second."

"Kangaroo?!" Aster shouted as Jack tried to smother his rising laughter with one hand. He thought it was hilarious that Tony had given him the nickname he resented the most. "Who are you calling a kangaroo, mate?"

"Just a nickname, it's the accent really. Now I don't know about you, but I want to get the hell out of here as soon as possible, so if you would allow us to pass, we want to talk with the big guy." Tony said, nodding his head towards North.

"Bunny, back down. We don't want to fight with this man, or Jack. North wants to talk to them, so leave them alone." The brightly coloured fairy reprimanded, placing a small hand on his shoulder.

The rabbit gave the pair one last glare, before retreating back to where the sandman was snoozing on a giant swirling golden cloud. Tony itched to run his fingers through it, to ask questions, to see how it worked ticked. He was also very uncomfortable. Magic wasn't exactly his forte, let alone something he had ever experienced before.

"Though I would prefer if you stayed here, uh, Mizter Iron Man, I feel like you would desire to remain with Jack." The burly man said with his deep Russian accent. Tony gave him a charming smile. "That's right Nicky! He's a very special kid, according to the people who think they're my bosses. And I think that they'll be wanting him back, so I'm not leaving his side." His tone was light and snarky, but the message was clear.

Jack looked at Tony Stark in astonishment. Why was this strange man defending him? They had met no less than ten minutes ago! Jack supposed it might be because they were in a unfamiliar place, with only each other, surrounded by beings that could seriously hurt them if they wanted to, and Jack was the only person he knew who had answers, and was on Tony's side. North waved for them to follow, and Tony glanced back at Jack before following.

They walked on a large balcony, and the two looked down in amazement. Jack had been here before, but he hadn't seen exactly how big the workshop was. He hadn't seen how amazing all the little lights and toys and noises were. The spirit had a feeling Tony felt the same way. The man jumped up and caught one of the flying things by the wing. He turned it over in his armoured hands, being extremely gentle with it. "It's completely normal! Though the craftsmanship is excellent, how the hell does this little critter fly?" The man said, completely baffled.

"Please put zat back, please Mizter Iron Man. I quite like my flying toys." Tony released the thing back into the air, and gazed up at it, as it fluttered back into the airspace of the workshop, joining the others.

"Nice place you got here, big guy." Tony said, admiring the crafted wood on the handrails.

"Yes, it is very nice." North replied, opening a huge oak door, and stepping inside.

Jack followed Tony through the doorway, and panicked. Yep, he knew exactly why here was here, now. North fixed him with a piercing glare, pinning him in place. Jack looked around frantically, noticing the elf tunnel entrance. He thought about flying over to it and escaping, but there was no way Tony and his suit would fit through it.

An elf wandered over, offering a tiny plate up to North. "Cookie?" He asked.

Tony looked amused, but shook his head in unison with Jack.

"Do you know why we brought you here, Jack?" The big man asked, dropping the plate, the threat lacing his tone.

Jack only gulped, refusing to meet North's eye. He nodded, albeit very slowly, but North caught it. "Ah, so you do? Well, before I ask for it back, I want to know why you stole it."

North's presence seemed to grow larger, as he towered over Jack. "Why did you steal it, Jack?" He asked, the dangerous undercurrent overtaking his voice.

"Why did you sneak into my workshop and steal the Frosti figurine, Jack? Who sent you? How did you find it? Where is it!?"

Tony must've sensed the escalating situation, because was already moving in front of Jack when North's questions became shouts that boomed through the workshop. He cringed at the volume of the man's last questioned, but stayed where he was. Tony wasn't really sure if he felt like a lawyer defending his client or a rather annoying middle aged mother. Either way, he was ready to defend Jack with his famous Stark sarcasm. A huge scary Russian man, who also happened to be the oh-so-jolly Santa Clause, was towering over a terrified kid, screaming about a stolen figurine. Yeah, that's so not going to happen if Tony could help it.

"Sorry Sabretooth, but if you yell like that one more time I'll blast my way out of here, regardless of whatever magical protection voodoo you've got going on. And what the hell are these things doing?" Tony said, gesturing wildly to the trio of elves who had been caught red-handed licking the backs of the gingerbread cookies. "Aren't these little gremlins supposed to, I don't know, make the toys? Why are the polar bears doing it?" The philanthropist questioned, listing the various oddities he had noticed in the workshop in his fingers. Jack was impressed, it had taken Tony nearly no time at all to believe in the things most adults refused to see, which, in his opinion, was a lot of things.

"We just let elves think they make toys. Yeti's are much better, more precise. Elves are… elves. I am sorry friend, I did not mean to yell, but Jack has stolen something very important from me, and I will be needing it back."

Jack's mind flashed back to the lifelike little statue, and shuddered as he remembered the spine-chilling feeling he received when he traced his fingers over its surface. He was missing something, he just knew it. There was something he wasn't seeing, something he had-

The sword man in his dreams.

Jack looked around wildly in a futile attempt to collect his erratic thoughts. "I dreamt about the statue! Why did it feel so real? The dream made me lose control, but the sword man he said that 'we're coming'…" The spirit's words were as scattered and erratic as his thoughts, and North visibly paled.

Jack's heart thumped in his chest and his head spun as he remembered more and more of the strange dream. Had the stolen statue influenced it somehow? Is that why he received such an eerie vibe from the object? Because it made him have bad dreams? Why had he felt such as strange connection to the object? Did North have answers for him? He was going to find out.

"What is that thing! Why do you have it? It's making me have strange dreams, but in the dreams, the figure is real, and the dream, it's so strange…"

Tony stared cautiously at the frightened spirit, his faceplate up, and leaning slightly away from the scene. He was assessing the situation, monitoring the elves that scurried around, keeping an eye on the big guy who looked to deeply contemplating something, and observing how Jack paced, occasionally jumping into the air and tapping his staff on the group. He did this for a few minutes, occasionally rolling his eyes at the warbling of a yeti or the senseless antics of the elves.

When Tony fired up the repulsor on his right foot in an attempt to scare away a nosy elf, another three of them decided to have a go. They got singed, and scurried off to show their friends, and Tony snorted. He never imagined elves to be so… dull. He went back to observing, but was interrupted by a cacophony of footprints that echoed throughout he room. Elves of all shapes scrambled over to investigate the foot of the Iron Man suit. Tony, deciding he had had enough, rose into the air, steering away from the elves in favour of standing on the other side of Jack. He landed with a thud, glancing over to a startled North and a bemused-looking Jack. "Hey big guy, control your minions."

North ran a hand through his whitened beard, and snapped his fingers. A shrill bell rang throughout the cavernous workshop causing the elves to pile out of the room via small hatches in the wall. "It is a little early for lunch, but it was necessary if we are to get down to business."

"Now, Jack," North said, "Please tell me, why did you sneak into my workshop?"

The winter spirit stopped his pacing and stared up at the ancient man. His eyes held no anger, only curiosity with a small amount of caution. Jack sighed. "I'm guessing I left a little ice behind, didn't I?" he jested.

North acknowledged this by nodding his head, also urging Jack to answer his question. Jack looked to Tony for support, who only smirked at him, but his body language told him the billionaire would help him out if the situation got too dire. "It was the first time I had been flying in almost seventy years, and I wanted to get out for a little bit. I was curious, and I just wanted to see the workshop after so long, but when I got there I saw a chance to sneak in, and I, uh, kind of took it. I had no intention of stealing anything, I swear, but that thing, I felt the strangest connection to it. The only other thing I have experienced that felt like that, was my staff." Jack admitted holding out the twisted wooden limb for North to see. North eyed it curiously.

"May I see that for a second?" The big man enquired gently. He did not want to scare the young spirit, and had a sneaking suspicion that this object was the missing piece of the puzzle he had been trying to uncover for almost three hundred years.

Jack hesitated, carefully going over his options. Surely the big man wouldn't take it from him? North had answers, and Jack desperately needed them, so very carefully, he lay his precious possession in the man's large hands.

North turned it over in his hands, gently tracing the lines in the ancient wood, and running his thumb over the little lightning patterns that raced along its length. The man had centuries of experience with magic, and magical objects, but had never seen anything that looked so simple, yet held such hidden powers. North could feel the raw energy thrumming within, pulsing and leaning toward its owner. North smiled at the object. Magic wasn't something to be trifled with; it's a living thing with a mind of its own. The magic held within the staff held strong connections to Jack, it was a part of him, after all.

The man looked up and smiled lightly at the anxious spirit that floated in front of him. "Your magic, it is very strong, loyal, obedient. You are quite a lucky little spirit to be linked with something so powerful, yet so tame. Usually, the more powerful a magic is, the trickier it is to conjure, and even harder to successfully wield. Most magic's have a mind of their own, you know, a personality, if you will. Your magic's strongest trait is its loyalty; it is willing to defend its master at any cost. But that also means it can lash out if it feels you are in great danger and sometimes take matters into its own hands, regardless of who is in the way. It is something to be wary of in the future."

Jack couldn't speak as the weight on North's words settled on his shoulders. The man before him had lay his hands on his staff and told him the personality of his magic, something he didn't even know existed. North had given somewhat of an explanation for why his powers had been acting up as of late and even complimented him! What this the same guy that had yelled at him not even ten minutes ago?

Tony scoffed from somewhere from Jack's right, shifting in his suit and making it whir and clink. Jack was intrigued about how the contraption worked, and why that little light in the centre powered the entire thing. He had guessed that it could fly, but hadn't really confirmed it until witnessing Tony escape the wrath of the elves, which would've been hilarious if not for the tense situation he had been experiencing.

The spirit shot Tony an irritated glare who returned it with an equally annoyed look. North noticed the exchanged and grinned as he thought of a way to entertain the eccentric man. "Jack, do you want to see something?" Jack nodded slowly as North lay his staff on the ground.

The burly fellow twirled his finger in the air, creating a small orb of light that hovered above his fingertips. North pinched it between his forefinger and his thumb, and very gently flicked it toward the staff.

Bright blue light enveloped the room, and a thin line of blue energy appeared along the length of Jack's staff. Tony's eyes widened, and he backed up closer to Jack. The light grew brighter and brighter, causing everybody in the room to shield their eyes. It disappeared in a flash allowing Tony to peak over his hand to gouge out what the hell had just happened.

North laughed heartily and ambled over to where the pair had their mouths hanging open. The thin line of energy had shot up from the staff, only a little taller than the Iron Man suit and created a thin screen of swirling blue light. To Tony, it looked a lot like the staff was acting as a 3D projector and projecting a screen from below instead of above. It also looked a lot like the technology he had in Stark Tower. How had 'magic' replicated his tech?

"You see Jack, any magical object linked to a person or spirit will record memories from the time the item and person have been associated with each other. Usually the most treasured or most recent memories are the most vivid, and the faintest only snapshots of a scene. If you would like to see something, simply hold it within your mind and touch the surface of the energy screen.

Jack tried to arrange his stunned mind, and tune in to a particular memory, one that wasn't too personal and wouldn't give too much away. He smiled when it came to him. Stark was watching intently, studying the swirling sheen of blue, probably scanning it as well.

Jack held tight to the memory and gently tapped the glowing surface. The energy rippled from where his fingertip made contact, slowly forming an image. Tony, who had flipped his faceplate down and was scanning the energy, taking notes, photos, video, and was muttering notes and small observations to Jarvis, looked up. The billionaire's eyes widened when a crystal clear image formed, depicting a scruffy looking red headed man sitting on the floor leaning against the sofa watching a movie. Someone walked across the line of vision holding a heaping bowl of steaming popcorn and sat down to Jack's right. The image moved as Jack shifted into a more comfortable position, and his hands could be seen briefly. The sound was only a low buzz, but the red-head's laughter rang clear through the room, as they watched what Tony supposed was a comedy. There was a warm feeling to the room, it felt relaxed, and content. Jack took a handful of popcorn and began munching on it, but as the memory progressed, he obviously got bored of eating and started throwing the small white food items.

The two on the couch tried to smother their laughter as Jack managed to land every single piece in the other guy's shaggy mop of hair, but were unsuccessful and burst out laughing. The laughter was the only thing that could be heard clearly in the memory, it struck a chord within Tony. A good laugh with good friends is something precious, something that should always be remembered. Tony found himself really starting to like the kid, despite all the magical voodoo that he was apparently a part of. Coulson said that Jack worked for SHIELD, but when the hell did the top secret agency start dealing in magical entities?

The memory ended when Jack's friend turned around and all of the popcorn fell out of his hair and into his lap. Laughter could still faintly be heard ringing throughout the room. There was a moment of silence before North scared the crap out of everyone by clapping his hands. Tony had stopped himself from blasting the man just in time. "Very good memory! Another, perhaps?"

Jack grinned with delight and tapped the shimmering screen, apparently already having another memory to show. It wasn't as long as the last one, and showed the guy with the red hair dozing lightly on a black couch, hugging a pillow. The other guy, the one who had the popcorn, was resting his blonde head on his arms and watching with mild concern as Jack blew a breath of frosty air onto the sleeping man. A light dusting of snow covered his hair and his shoulders before he woke up with a sneeze. This time, the sound of the surprised awakening was the only sound to be heard, echoing through the room just as the laughter had before.

Tony couldn't take his eyes from the swirling mass of energy, watching with great interest as the memory faded and the screen went back to its original form. Sure, you could easily see brainwaves indicating a strong emotion or even dream, but to show an actual memory, directly from a certain person, was astounding. He was still sceptical of all this magical nonsense, but it wasn't that far of a stretch to believe in, considering everything else he had witnessed today.

"Hey, kid, mind if I take a little sample of this… uh… energy?"

Jack shrugged, looking briefly at North, who was eyeing a steaming plateful of chocolate chip cookies resting on his workbench. Tony took this as a yes, and stepped forward to take a sample of the swirling mass of blue. He had equipped the suit to be able to absorb and contain various energy sources as a backup power source for his suit, but decided he wanted to contain a small portion of this stuff and study it. He wanted to know how it ticked, what makes it glow, why it was that colour, the exact energy amounts it contained. He couldn't help it, he just needed to know these kind of things.

The blue spread around his fingertip as he absorbed a small portion and stored it away for later. "A very unusual energy, sir." Jarvis commented. "It will take some time to process, I am estimating approximately a week with the latest program from your personal drive sir." Tony nodded and flipped his faceplate up. "Thanks for that, snowball."

"So, Jack, we know that you stole the Frosti figurine, and I am quite sure it was by accident. I assume you would like to know a little more about it, yes?"

Jack nodded so quickly that his bleached locks flopped up and down, spreading messily against his forehead as they settled. North chuckled to himself as he regarded the child-like curiosity of the boy. It was rather refreshing to see someone so eager and so excited to see the simplest of magics.

"Vhell, I found it a few centuries ago, in the early beginnings of morning. I remember, it was sitting in the only dark place there was, under the shelter of a fallen log. The rest of the place was very well lit, very light. The sun was shining off of the ice, the trees were glistening with snow, very beautiful, so it was strange to find such a dark object in such a place of marvel. It was very eerie, and it disturbed the reindeer very much, I agree with you that it is a dark object of unknown power. I almost destroyed the workshop in an attempt to bring its power forth, yes; it was not a good day. A lot of clean-up involved. I do not think it is of this Earth, and hails from an alien planet I am not familiar with. The energy is not compatible with the origins of this world; it holds something ancient and deadly, Jack. I must have it back, it must remain in my protection to prevent a disaster if ever the magic within decided to reveal itself."

Jack took the pause in North's explanation to process the man's wild theories. He was an ancient being, most likely holding several centuries' worth magical knowledge and experience. The man probably had rooms upon rooms housing the world's most powerful ancient magical tomes and artifacts. The way he was able to tell Jack the magical properties of his staff by simply handling it, and the way he was able to replay Jack's memories through the staff was an amazing feat. He would have to ask how it was done, and if he could do it himself.

Jack saw Tony roll his eyes and spared a glance over to the armour-clad man. The arms of the iron man suit were crossed over the red and gold chest, shielding the abnormal glow from view. He was staring at North with the most skeptical formation of features Jack had ever witnessed on a single person. Tony's lips were pursed and his dark eyes were narrowed, making him seem even more obnoxious than he already was. His nose was lightly scrunched and his head was tilted upwards, giving the billionaire a completed look of skepticality. Jack thought it was kind of stupid, given everything they have seen today and all of the magical creatures that wandered through the room they were standing in, but wasn't really feeling like bringing up the issue with him. Jack had a feeling Tony would say something snarky or clever and the conversation would be over in a matter of seconds.

North had apparently noticed the philanthropist's skeptical behaviour as well, noting the occasional shaking of his head and disbelieving grunts as the minutes passed in thoughtful silence. Tony was busy taking notes and getting Jarvis to scan the entirety of the huge workshop, all of the little critters in it, and the amount of energy that the place held. Even if the big guy had called the place magic, there was no way in hell he was going to be referring to it as such. To him, it was just unknown energy sources that he was going to be the first to figure out. He secretly revelled in being the first to do something, which was usually a lot of things, making the genius a happy man.

He was only a minute away from receiving the exact number of elves that resided in North's workshop, when the man himself interrupted his calculations. "I can see you do not believe my theories, Mr. Iron Man. Am I correct in saying that magic is something you have not encountered in the past? I can offer to explain some of the simpler concepts to you if you are interested."

Usually North wouldn't do something like this, he wouldn't help a complete and total stranger who had tagged along in the capture of Jack Frost and had been so sarcastic and rude, but North could see the man had the mind of someone who was always striving to learn more. To achieve more. Besides, North very much enjoyed talking about magic. The only other person who took interest in magic was Sandy, but it was more his own magic that he enjoyed to discuss. Well as much as he could discuss without talking.

Tony scoffed. "So Santa Clause wants to explain the concept of magic to me?" Tony asked sarcastically, tapping his armoured fingers together. He flipped his faceplate back up after he had closed it to analyse something. In fact, he was about to refuse the offer, grab the kid and find his own way out of there, when Jarvis's elf count had completed and the exact number of the little creatures flashed up on the screen. It made Tony consider the offer. This was something he had never heard of existed before, at least not from a credible source. This was most likely something no other person had the privilege of witnessing.

But since when did he consider diving through a magical portal into a strange place with childhood myths alongside a magical kid who worked for SHIELD? Tony sighed. If he refused the offer, they would just stand there and look at him. He gave one last exaggerated sigh before slumping his shoulders in defeat. "Sure, big guy. I'll have a crack at it."

Jack was surprised when Tony gave him one last dramatic look before accepting North's kind offer. He was even more surprised when North dragged out an enormous oak chest, that was so large and so heavy, that Jack had to ice over a portion of the floor to help bring it out. Tony took an interest in the way Jack used his powers and stretched the fingers of his Iron Man suit out in a display of childlike curiosity. Jack gave him a bemused smile and decided to entertain him but touching the tip of his staff onto his hands and allowing the small fern-like patterns to crawl over his fingers and around his glowing palms. It kept the genius entertained for a few minutes, studying the frozen patterns, whilst North sorted out the chest.

* * *

Over a period of a little over an hour, Tony and Jack sat at a large table in a small room connected to North's office and studied the vast variety magical relics that the trunk of treasures contained. The room was decorated in light creams and dark oaken browns. Jack was sure it had some sort magical spell cast over it, because as soon as he stepped over the threshold and onto the plush carpet, he felt at peace. He felt as if he had left his worries back in the other room, and that he could finally think straight. The spirit had a feeling Tony felt the same, given the contented sigh he had heard escape the man when they sat down.

North gave them a brief introduction to magic, taking the time to go over all the different types, how it is used, what it can do, and even listing some of the more powerful sorcerers that have walked the Earth in the past ten thousand years. Not that the jolly man was that old, of course, but he had a vast knowledge that he proudly claimed was rivalled by very few. Jack also explained to North why he had been out of action for the past seventy years, when the man enquired. North had shook his head, muttering about foolish spirits getting themselves into trouble. Jack didn't have the heart to correct him.

Tony seemed very interested when North explained what magic can do, and how it has helped mankind throughout the ages. He asked about the legitimacy of common myths and fairy tales, most of which North had to retell the 'proper' way, as the stories had been exaggerated over the years. North used the magical items to explain how things worked and how magic had affected them. For example, he pulled out a wooden hairbrush that looked to be from the 1800's, and ran it along the length of his arm. It glowed for a white for a moment, before erasing the patterned tattoos on the man's arms! Tony leaned back in his chair.

"So, it rubs out all of your tattoos? That would be a big hit on the market, you know! Roll up, Roll up and see the amazing removal powers of the hairbrush! Buy today and get a second one, absolutely free!" He had quipped.

North had given him a bemused smile and ran the hairbrush over his arm once more, allowing the tattoos to return. Tony scoffed. "Well, that takes all of the fun out of it, doesn't it?"

"This item is enchanted to restore something back to its original form for a small amount of time. I will have to check to records to be sure, but I think it is the space of three days, and then whatever you used the item on will return to normal. Of course, you can always change it back by simply using the brush again."

"Nice! It'd be useful if you needed to cover up a black eye or something until it healed, or maybe even replenish the alcohol supply." Tony added, waggling his eyebrows.

"Ah! Wait until you see my supply of liquor! It is marvellous, some are very old. It is the biggest in the world, I am sure."

The billionaire raised his eyebrows in a silent challenge. "Hmm, the booze collection of billionaire Tony Stark versus a thousand-year-old Russian Santa Claus? It'd be close, I reckon." Jack snickered at this, recalling how Tony had offered him a drink when they'd first met.

North either didn't hear Tony's last comment, or chose to ignore it, because he didn't comment. There were other things in the chest of wonders; including a set of paintbrushes that each held a different colour of paint, made to be so that the artist didn't have to continuously keep dipping their brushes on paint. North showed them by painting a purple star on the table.

North even gifted Tony and Jack with some of the simpler magical items, a glove that pulses if someone lies or attempts to deceive him for Tony, and a small plain golden ring that allows sharper and more precise control of magic for Jack. Jack tested it by trying to draw a replica of the five pointed star North had painted earlier. He was pleasantly surprised to witness his frost perfectly form the sharpened points and lines of the simple shape. North had also told him it used to be a relic that was able to withhold the memories of a fallen warrior, but had been re-enchanted to do something different. Jack decided it would be useful, and he would have to test just how much it benefited his powers when he got back to the Helicarrier.

The process or re-enchanting an item was something that North had explained earlier. He said it was much easier for younger or more inexperienced sorcerer to re-enchant an item rather than to place their own original spell on a plain object. He explained that the original enchantment was still valid and able to be used, but it would mean erasing the newest enchantment Jack found it interesting, albeit a little confusing, and asked if his staff was enchanted, and could be re-enchanted. North had considered it a very tricky question, trying to explain that the vast amounts of energy and power held within Jack's staff were tuned to him, and that it was enchanted, but by a very ancient form of magic, one that was hard to reverse of replace. It lead to North explaining the concept of the Man in the Moon, and that they had given them all their powers. It was a delicate topic for Jack, and he found himself resenting 'Manny' for all the years he spent alone wondering, waiting, hoping for answers that never came.

Jack was studying a delicate glass horse and Tony was playing with a wooden cube when Aster burst through the door. "North! I've been looking everywhere for ya mate! There's something going on, the elves are going crazy, there's these things invading the workshop. Tooth says they're some kind of goblin, but they're flying around dive bombing everybody! They're making a hell of a racket and gave some of the yeti's a few gashes, so be careful!" Bunny managed shot Jack a dirty look before he rushed back out through the way he came. North was on his feet instantly racing toward out of the door. Tony and Jack put down what they were playing with and followed, shooting each other panicked glances as they ran.

* * *

The workshop was in utter disarray. Broken toys littered the polished floors, yeti's yelled and ran around, the elves were literally trying to climb the walls to get away from the dark blue, almost black, flying creatures who were screeching violently and slashing at anything they could get close to, it was chaos. The Sandman flew over to the spirit and the billionaire, waving his arms and making small pictures above his golden head, but seeing that the pair weren't getting it, he made a life size version of one of the flying monsters and slashed through it with the gleaming golden spear he held in his hand. Jack nodded at him, signalling that he got it, and Sandy took off to aid the other guardians.

Jack could see where Tooth got the notion of a goblin from, the creatures were about the same size and shape as any goblin Jack had ever seen. But then again, he had only seen two in his lifetime, and they weren't very pleasant creatures. They were highly territorial, secluded creatures that hunted in large packs and stayed in even larger family groups. Jack had always thought himself lucky to catch a lost couple off guard and only managed to get away with very few injuries and a newly-learnt vocabulary of curse words. The flying things were almost so dark blue that you couldn't make out their features, these creatures didn't want food, and they weren't pissed at you for invading their land, their only goal in mind was to wreak complete havoc upon North's workshop and destroy as much as much whilst creating as many injuries as they could.

Jack ducked as a creature swooped over his head, managing to hook a claw in his hood and tear the fabric a little. Jack almost saw red and flew toward the unlucky creature that had even dared to touch his beloved clothing item. He wasn't quick enough, though, and witnessed a boomerang fly straight through its middle, making the creature disappear in a shower of deadly sharp shards of glass. Well, Jack thought it was glass as a wayward piece nicked him on the hand, but as he held under further examination and watched it change colour from a dark swirling blue to a clear ice and melt, he came to the conclusion that these creatures weren't alive, just conjured from a mixture of what looked to be magic and ice.

He didn't have much time to panic though, as another one of the creatures flew straight toward him at a speed that would've taken his head off if he hadn't off have brought his staff up to defend himself. He stood in the middle of a rain of razor sharp ice, wincing every time one of the miniscule shards cut into his skin. 'This isn't going to be easy,' the spirit thought as he rushed to take out one of the creatures dive bombing a cornered elf. There were hundreds of these things flying around, and although they weren't too hard to defeat, Jack had a feeling that all the sharp slivers of ice would take a toll on the guardians. Tony should be fine, though, in his flashy suit of armour.

It was a free for all when everyone seemed to realise that the flying goblins weren't alive. Tooth and The Sandman were both battling fiercely each with their own golden spear in their hands. Tony whizzed about the place, blasting the creatures into oblivion with his glowing blue repulsors that made a strange noise when he fired them. North had managed to usher out all of the elves from the room, and he and his band of loyal warrior yetis were standing on the very top of the globe in the midst of a growing pile of sharpened ice. Jack didn't really know how they had gotten there, but guessed they jumped from the balcony overlooking the entirety of the workshop. It was a rather large leap, though. He heard the grunts of pain from the other guardians as the razor-ice rained down onto them.

That's what Jack had decided to call it, razor-ice. It was as sharp as any razor or blade he had ever been cut by, and looked and behaved exactly like normal ice. He let his thoughts wander to where the hell these things came from, and why they were attacking North's workshop. They didn't seem to after anything in particular, just hell-bent on creating as much destruction and chaos as they could. Tooth flew over his head slashing through three of the creatures at once, making them shriek and explode in an icy cloud. The guardian wasn't unharmed it seemed as she gasped harshly and began falling to the floor, her left wing flapping uselessly as she descended.

Tony swooped through the air, under the flailing fairy and caught her lightly in his arms. "Hi there, sweetheart, need a little help?" He asked with a cocky grin, his voice distorted through his armour. Tooth managed to scoff, but was in too much pain to tell the man off. She managed to get into a somewhat comfortable position as Tony began to lower gently down to the floor, but was thrown from his hold when a flurry of the winged beats hit the Iron Man suit from behind. Jarvis flashed warning signals on the screen, they were getting smarter in their approach, grouping together as more and more remains of their brethren fell to the floor.

Jack saw the escalating situation, he saw North hesitate between aiding Tony and saving Tooth. Jack began to rush toward where she was falling just before North slid down the globe and bounded to Tony's aid. He hooked his staff under her arm before she hit the floor and lowered her carefully another eight feet to the ground, calling the wind to blow away some of the scattered razor ice so she could sit comfortable on the ground.

The spirit kneeled beside her, watching warily as three little fairies that looked like miniature versions of the tooth fairy fluttered around, squealing nervously. Tooth assured her 'girls' that she was fine, and stood on her feet, only to have her legs buckle from underneath and begin to topple over. Jack caught her, and offered a light smile.

"Whoa, watch it there; you have a torn wing and some gashes that need some serious medical attention. You need to sit tight for a little while, we've got this."

She tried to stand again. "Like hell you do! If I can still fight, I'll give it my all, whether I'm injured or not. I'm just as good as a ground fighter as I am in the air, and I can take care of myself, thank you very much." Tooth announced, gritting her teeth in a vain attempt to stand once more. Jack wordlessly ducked under her arm and supported her, as it was obvious she would try to stand with or without his help, he may as well keep her upright. Tony, North, Aster and a large number of yetis were making their way through the dwindling storm of flying creatures.

After a little over a minute of bickering, an extremely exasperated Jack managed to convince an even more stubborn Tooth to lay low after she collapsed for the third time. Jack straightened out her wing, keeping a wary eye on the battle that raged to the left of where they were crouched in a corner. He checked once more that it was perfectly straight and that the painful-looking slash right through the middle was put together before he coated the appendage in a semi-thick layer of frost. He made it so that it was thick enough so it wouldn't crack and fall to the floor or melt too quickly and thin enough that it wouldn't weigh the wing down too much and cause major discomfort.

Even though they had only been in the corner for a few minutes, the battle was almost over. You couldn't step anywhere on the workshop floor without crunching over the melting razor-ice unless you brushed it away. It also made the ground slippery, which caused a few slips and nicks to hands when whoever had fallen tried to catch themselves. It was really only a problem for Aster, as Jack was piggybacking Tooth through the air and everybody else either had protective footwear of could fly. Tony eventually swooped down and hooked his hands under his armpits after watching him pick his way gingerly over the sharpened ice. It wasn't hard to imagine that the guardian wasn't at all happy, especially after Tony dumped him unceremoniously on the balcony where North and Sandy had cleared away the majority of the ice that was on the floor there.

* * *

North, Jack, Tooth, Aster, Sandy and Tony made their way to North's office, looking absolutely exhausted after the draining fight. Everybody except Tony, of course, who strolled through the door, whistling a merry tune. Needless to say, he received a variety of dirty looks shot his way. The fight lasted almost an hour and everybody was dog-tired. Jack knew Tony was tired by the way sat down and waited patiently for everybody else to speak instead of getting distracted or spouting out snarky comments about the various things he observed. Jack hadn't even known the guy that long, so he found it mildly amusing that he was able to know how Tony was feeling by simply observing his actions, or rather lack of actions.

It was Tooth who got the discussion started, beginning with the topic of what the hell the creatures were, and what they were doing. North answered the first question by explaining to the bewildered group that they were creatures conjured of magic, powerful magic at that, because there were so many of them. He also confirmed Jack's theory that they weren't alive, only 'apparitions' that were a physical part of the world until they were either destroyed or recalled by the person that had brought them into the world, and that the person responsible was the person who had conjured them. The next question was why they were made from ice, and all eyes turned to Jack.

Jack had explained over and over again that he had no idea what the things were or why they had attacked, trying to make it clear that he had nothing to do with the attack. The spirit told them that he could barely control his own magic, let alone use it to create and control an army of flying ice-trolls.

Tony sat glumly with his head in his hands, staring with a bored expression at the bickering guardians. They had resolved the issue with Jack and the ice thing, (the only part of the discussion he had listened to, really) and was completely and thoroughly sick of the escalating exchange. North had just leaped to his feet, waving his gleaming silver sabre wildly at Aster when Tony stood up.

"Ok kiddies, it's been fun, truly, I enjoyed being dive bombed by chaotic ice-trolls, but I'm sure me and winterboy over here need to get going. We'll be in touch."

Tony grabbed Jack's arm and began to drag him out of the room. Jack didn't protest, he was actually glad to get out of there. Aster wouldn't stop shooting him dirty looks, and Tooth had even put her hands in his mouth, claiming that she had always wanted to see his pearly whites. North's voice boomed too loud and grated on his already frayed nerves, and he found it a little frustrating trying to decrypt the Sandman's strange images. He was also pretty upset about his ruined hoodie.

North stopped them just outside the doorway, and they sorted out the statue situation. Jack had said it might take some pretty tricky convincing to get them to give it up, but promised to get back to North on the matter in a week, not really sure how he would do it, though. North had rushed back into the room, and returned later with a small, olive green box. "Simply put your message in here, and I will receive it. It will also work if you are sending the Frosti figurine. Do not abuse it, it will only send one message forward and one message back."

The two flew out of the workshop, both seeming to be relieved to get the hell out of there. Jack clutched the small box North had given him, but it didn't hinder him from flying at all. Tony seemed fascinated about how the winds kept Jack afloat and had Jarvis record the speeds, different currents and how they interacted with Jack's energy. They even had a short race; with Tony winning by a hairsbreadth and boasting about it all the way back to the Stark tower, much to Jack's extreme annoyance. The suit's repulsors had disrupted the winds he was flying on, that was all. He could've easily beaten him if he wasn't so tired after the battle.

They were greeted with exactly what Jack had expected, huge swarming masses of bustling agents, a panicking Alex, a smiling Coulson and a very pissed-off-looking Director of SHIELD. Alex had bounded over to Jack, asking him a hundred questions at once, only to catch a glimpse of Tony examining the repulsors on his hands and be rendered speechless. Coulson was hot on the billionaire's heels as Tony saluted Jack and sauntered off to god knows where, though Jack caught eye of the same red-haired woman from before come running out and slap him for 'being such an idiot and going off god-knows-where for hours and leaving me with no clue as to where to start looking for you.'

Jack hopped in a car with Fury and some other agent he had never met before and sat down for a long debriefing that continued for the whole car trip and most of the plane ride back to the Helicarrier. Jack had to try to explain over and over again about what he saw, where he was, who he was with, and Fury eventually gave up, claiming that if Stark didn't confirm his story word-for-word, he'd kick Jack's ass eight way's from Sunday.

It wasn't until Jack got back to his comfortably freezing room that he examined his injuries. It wasn't until he took off his hood that he realised it wasn't salvageable, and wasn't until the examined the slash in the blue material that he read the message printed in dripping black ink, clear as day:

"We're coming, Jack Frost."

* * *

**_A/N: _**How's that for a cliffhanger, eh? I don't mean to leave you guys on edge but it's part of the plan I've set out so it had to happen. By the way, have you guys seen the ABSOLUTELY FRICKEN AMAZING cover art for this story yet? It made me tear up, I loved it that much. You can say thanks to the amazing xfireflyskyx for this brilliant piece of art! You can find some of her other work on DeviantArt under the same username, I suggest you check it out, its awesome!

So, how did you like the interactions between Tony &amp; Jack, Tony &amp; The Guardians, and just Tony's attitude in general? I thought I got most of the snarkiness of point, but if there's anything I missed or you think that I should add, please tell me! Also tell me how you liked this chapter, if you like the story, if you're bored with the story, if you love the story, I want to hear from you! If you think there's something that needs to be added, something you'd like to see written, I really would love to know! Tell me what you liked about this chapter, what you didn't like, etc, and most importantly, REVIEW! Happy (late) Easter guys, I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend!


	12. Chapter 12

**Important! Please read the Authors note at the end of the chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

Staying awake for a week was something Jack had constantly considered a normality before he had been frozen in the ice for almost seventy years. Hell, months of wakefulness at a time was never something the spirit considered a privilege. Until now.

After discovering the ominous message embroidered onto the shredded fabric of his hood six days prior, Jack made it his top priority to stay awake. As he packed his brand new supply of uniforms (Fury had decided to completely change the style, settling on a much more comfortable, well-fitting style made from a different material and changing from the standard black to a much more aesthetic dark blue with lines of black here and there) into a small suitcase, the winter spirit struggled to keep his eyes opened. It wasn't like he was without reason, no, that wasn't it.

The truth was, Jack was terrified. Terrified of the nightmares he knew would plague him if he rested his eyes for even a minute. Ever since he laid eyes on the words ripped into his clothing, Jack knew that the man in his dreams was real. He knew that those things that attacked him, Tony and the Guardians at North's workshop were sent by the sword-man, and that the notion of this guy being _real and _being able to access him dreams and scare the living crap out of him freaked Jack out to no end.

Added on top of all his worry, was the figurine. Jack had inquired about the progress, and Coulson had admitted that there had been no new discoveries, other than the strange energy signals emanating from its form. It wasn't until Jack had laid eyes on it again for the first time since he had handed it over to be examined, that he made the connection. The flapping cape, the sharpened sword, the angled face, it all made fit together sickeningly well.

The statue, this tiny figure that could fit into the palm of his hand, looked exactly like the man in his dreams. In fact, Jack was so _sure _it was the man from his dreams. Which meant that the sword-man's name was Jokul Frosti, and that he was _very _powerful, given the fact that even North couldn't crack the power that lay within the confines of the carefully sculpted glass. But was this statue actually the man from his dreams, or was it simply a relic _created _by Jokul Frosti for some unknown reason? The scariest question was, why did Jack feel such a strong connection the dark relic? It frightened him to no end, and he didn't keep it around long enough to find out.

As soon as he recovered from the shock of his discovery and had some time to think, Jack sent it away to North, with a note attached explaining his dreams, theories, concerns and the message printed on his hood. It almost killed him to cut it up, but it was already emanating weird vibes, probably left over from whatever the flying goblin used to print it on there in the first place. He also saved a small piece of the lettering for Tony, wrapping it up in a junk-food packet left over from Alex's last visit and stashed at the back of his closet. Jack sent the box away, and immediately felt anxious about all the information he had revealed in the note. He wasn't usually someone to share personal information, and he desperately hoped it was something North could keep to himself.

On top of all of the things topped onto his growing pile of worries, was the sudden move. Nick Fury had given them little information, only saying that the Helicarrier was to be used for more 'conventional' purposes, and that it was time for everybody to get back into the real world, saying that Jack would be continuing his training elsewhere. He was sending a majority of agents off of the ship so SHIELD could get down to renovating, which meant that they were turning all of the agent's living areas into god-knows-what. Jack knew he would be sad to see his only home in the 21st century be stripped down and turned into something more 'conventional', but he would lie if he said if he wasn't a little excited to be finally living in the real world. Alex would be with him, of course. He was still Jack's partner and friend, and Fury knew that at the very least Jack needed a friend right now.

The spirit fiddled with the magical ring North had given him, silently thanking the jolly man for his gift. This meant that he could defend himself better, focus his powers more, give a little more bite to his bark.

Jack was the most worried for Steve, who he was worried would have trouble adapting to the new world. It certainly wasn't going to be easy for Jack to adapt, but he had lived almost three hundred years. He was used to watching the world change before his very eyes, and even though seventy years' worth of change was a lot to get used to, it was certainly something Jack knew he could adapt to. But Steve, he was a different story. He had grown up in a single city, only ever venturing out when he became the super soldier.

Jack had laughed when he heard the story of how Steve performed in musical acts to sell war bonds for the war effort, finding it hard to imagine the big guy parading around giving practiced speeches and fighting pretend bad guys. Steve didn't talk about his past too much, only bringing it up when directly asked or on the odd occasion when he felt like sharing his thoughts. Jack didn't ask too much, because he could see the sadness flash through the soldier's blue eyes whenever he talked about his team back in WWII or the way things used to be.

The thing that concerned Jack the most about Steve was the slight fear in his face or the tensing of his shoulders whenever someone brought up something about the modern world. Jack vowed that he would help Steve, whether it be keeping his mind off of things with fantastically wild stories or having someone to be confused with when they both didn't understand some modern world reference.

Jack was thankful to have Alex with him, a constant supply of wisdom whenever it came to the modern world. The redhead was always explaining something about the 21st century that helped Jack to understand that little bit more. He always seemed happy to share something, whether it is the tallest building on earth, or when mankind launched a rocket onto the moon. The moon landing definitely piqued Jack's curiosity, he wondered how the Man in the Moon felt about that? The thought of the man in the moon sent a pang through his chest, and Jack shook his head and continued packing his clothes into the small black travel case.

There was a knock at the door just as Jack had managed to stomp down all of the clothes and was in the middle of trying to zip the wretched thing up. He had already gotten the material caught in the zip three times, and it was frustrating him to no end. Jack called for whoever it was to enter, thinking that Alex would saunter in from where his living space connected to Jack's, telling Jack about yet another interesting fact, as per usual. But when the door opened and nobody spoke, Jack picked up his staff. He was on edge, ready for anything at the moment. With all that's going on, how could he not be?

What he did not expect to see, was the pale blue piercing gaze of a very familiar female agent. If Jack had to be honest, he wanted to run. '_Get out of here as quickly_ _as possible_,' His mind told him. He didn't want to look at her, there was too much guilt that wracked his mind, but he found it hard to tear his gaze away. It was Christine.

Her usually neat thin brown hair was messy, and the challenge she held within her eyes was dull. The guilt was unbearable. Had he done this to her? Why did she look so… _tired. _

"Need some help hotstuff?" She asked. Her voice was quitter than normal, but Jack was relieved to hear that her ironic sense of sarcasm hadn't disappeared. Jack hesitated before swallowing thickly, and nodded. Truth be told, he really didn't want her to be there, in the room at all. She didn't seem afraid of him, which made Jack feel another surge of guilt. She gave him an unreadable look before settling down on top of the suitcase, much to his surprise.

When he didn't do anything, Christine simply looked at him until he remembered why she was sitting down on in in the first place. He mumbled a quiet apology and began to zip of the suitcase, making sure not to get the zip caught in any clothing items that dared to peek out of the sides. He was grateful for the weight holding down the bulging clothes, but was extremely uncomfortable being so close to Christine with the waves of guilt rolling through him. He could still clearly see bruises covering the majority of her hands, the small cut on her forehead, and the many he guessed were covered by her new SHIELD uniform. He moved as far away from her as he could when he had finished, avoiding eye contact.

Christine stood up, brushing herself off and sighed dramatically. "It wasn't your fault Jack." She said, more serious than he had ever heard her. There was not a trace of sarcasm in her voice, even though Jack usually had trouble finding the difference between her sarcasm and seriousness, her voice was soft, yet straight to the point.

"I just talked to Alex, and he confirmed what I had already been sure of. You weren't in control Jack, we all know that. Even though some people are being overdramatic about it, nobody was seriously injured. We all knew what we could be getting ourselves into when Fury assigned us the task, if it is anybody's fault, it's ours. Or Fury's, he's the one that thought up that little scheme. I can see where he's coming from, I really can, but it was uncalled for." She explained. "But jack, it is _not _your fault."

Jack looked up, hoping to believe what she was saying, but caught another glimpse of the purple and black shade of her hands and looked back down to the floor from where he was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"You know I can't believe that, when you were the one that got hurt the worst. Just how many bruises are you hiding under those sleeves?" He choked, his voice cracking towards the end.

Much to his disbelief, she tilted her head back and gave a hearty laugh, letting her hair fall back out of her face. Jack could only stare over at her in shock, watching as she finished and grinned at him. "It's not my sleeves that are covering the bruises kid; my legs took the brunt of it. You're lucky I was there to catch you, if you need lessons of how to falls properly, talk to Clint. Damn that guy can fall of the empire state building and still get back up. Don't worry, Jack, I'm fine." She assured.

Jack could only stare at her. Why was she playing this so coolly? His eyes narrowed. "Why did you pass out then, hmm?"

Her eyes widened slightly, before she schooled her features back into place. "Just getting my beauty sleep, we all had to get up at an obnoxious time that morning, and I kind of thought, 'hey, I'm already on my ass, why not take a nap?'"

Jack rolled his eyes, before cracking a grin and smothering it immediately. "That's not funny, Christine. What if you had of been hurt, or killed? You were so close to the blast, and if it wasn't for you, there would of have been a lot more people that were hurt. And don't try to pretend that your ankle isn't broken, I can see you limping."

She cringed, before sighing and waddling over to sit beside him. "Hey, Jack, _look at me._"

The frost spirit inched his head up and stared at her left cheek, desperately trying to avoid her piercing gaze. Unfortunately for him, she was as stubborn and moved her gaze into his line of vision. "You're a good kid, anybody who is knows you knows that, and just because you hurt people, doesn't mean that you're a bad person." Jack averted his gaze again, "You're just saying that so I feel better, a few reassuring words don't change what I did or how I feel about myself at the moment." Christine sighed again.

"Steve's a horrible person. So is Alex. They're both nasty, violent people who have hurt people and need to be locked away."

Jack startled, jumping away from her and giving the brunette a look that could freeze a person in their tracks, especially if he tried hard enough. "How DARE you, Steve and Alex are good people no matter what they've done and don't deserve that kind of bull-"

"So if Alex and Steve are good people no matter what they've done, even though they've most likely done a lot of bad things they probably regret, and the fact that you know some of the thing's they've done on a mission, or in self-defence, why do you still insist that giving a few people, _that were attacking your friend, _by the way, some bumps and bruises makes _you_ a bad person?"

Jack stood there, speechless as he mulled over Christine's words. He had played right into her trap, and even though he was annoyed at her for bringing his closest friends into it, he was also grateful for her insistence on the matter. He might not quite forgive himself yet, but with Christine putting the situation into perspective for him, he supposed it would be a little easier.

He was still mulling over her words long after she had left the room, telling him that you wouldn't be working for SHIELD if you hadn't done things that you'd regretted. He was still sitting cross-legged in front of his bedroom wall when Steve walked in, glancing at Jack in confusion before coming down and settling beside him, only facing the other way with his back resting against the light blue surface.

Jack hadn't even heard him enter until the soldier spoke. "I was going to ask you if you needed help with your bags, but it seems like you really won't need it. Unless you plan on taking some of those fancy kitchen tools with you." Jack chuckled lightly, before sighing.

"It really wasn't my fault, was it?"

Steve shook his head, his neatly groomed blonde hair falling out of place. "You had no control over the matter Jack, of course it wasn't." Steve stood up, and offered a hand to help Jack up before dusting himself off.

Jack took it gladly, feeling like he had been still for too long. Before Jack was frozen inside the ice for seventy years, he was constantly moving around. Whether it be hopping from building to building or skipping to the next country over, he never sat still. It was refreshing, but he was beginning to get uncomfortable.

To be truthful, Jack hadn't talked to Steve too much for the past two days. Fury had him training a few rookies on the first couple of days Jack had been back, but Steve had still made time to check up on him and ask if he was ok. They didn't talk long, and besides the quick conversation when passing each other in the halls, they hadn't really spoken.

"So, I guess I kinda forgot to ask this, but did you enjoy walking through New York for the first time in like, ages?"

Steve smiled at him, sighing wistfully. "It was certainly eye-opening to see a little more of it, but it wasn't my first time there, you know."

Jack reeled back, utterly confused. "Wha-"

"I didn't wake up on the helicarrier, I woke up in a SHIELD base. There was a pretty nurse smiling at me, the room looked like just another 40's hospital room. For a second there, I had thought everything was alright, that they had rescued me from the ice and I… I thought I was back home."

Steve took a deep breath, bowing his head and calming himself. Jack put a steady hand on his shoulder, trying to reassure him friend through a subject that he knew was hard to talk about. It was another one of those moments where Steve shared a little about himself, and Jack would listen to a bittersweet story about the soldier's friends or the howling commandos. He wanted to hear the rest of _this _story, even though it didn't seem like it was from the back in the 1940's, it sounded a hell of a lot different.

"But then, I listened to the radio. The announcer was relaying it, and it sounded so familiar. So I listened, and I realised. I had _been _to that game. I was right there with Bu-….. with… a friend."

Steve sighed again, and continued his story.

"It was terrifying, I broke out of the room, took out a few agents as I went, and burst out onto the main street of New York City. That was when I met Nick Fury. That was when I learned that I'd been 'asleep' in the ice, and was questioned about the other person that was found next to me."

Jack was so absorbed in the story it took him a moment to register that Steve was referring to _him_, and gave his friend a sheepish smile, hoping he would continue.

The soldier gave Jack and sad smile before continuing. "Well, it was certainly a real shock to remember that a total stranger _had, in fact, _crashed through the windscreen of the ship and went down with me. I was curious when they'd said that you'd survived as well. All sorts of things were running through my head, Hydra, another Super Soldier. But they fled my theories when they told me that you only looked about 16, 17 years old. You didn't _look _like a Hydra agent, _or _a Super Soldier they said.

Jack grinned. "Non-taken, but hey, I may not look like it, but I am older than you!" Jack joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Steve chuckled lightly. "Well, I didn't know that at the time. Though I had a feeling SHIELD did, because Nick Fury asked _a lot _of questions about you. I needed some time to get my head straight after waking up, so I stayed in a SHIELD safe house for a few weeks, before taking up residence on the Helicarrier. I was there a little under two weeks before I got a knock on my door from a nervous looking kid in a blue hood carrying a stick. Not the strangest thing that's ever happened to me though."

Steve smiled at Jack as his face turned red and he looked away. The spirit couldn't believe he had never heard this story before! He felt sad at the rude introduction that Steve had to the new world, and wished that he could've felt as happy as Jack did when he went exploring. But then again, Jack had nobody, no friends or family to leave behind in the past. It was certainly a lot harder on Steve knowing most of those people had died already. Jack tried to lighten the mood again with an admission of his own.

"Well, as long as we're on the topic, that wasn't my first time in New York either."

Steve's eyebrows shot up into his hairline, in an obvious show of surprise.

"I didn't _know _that New York was the place I had visited I went exploring that night, and when I remembered I kind of forgot again because I was so excited to go flying."

Steve laughed at this, making Jack grin at him. "C'mon Jack, I can hear Alex struggling with his suitcases next door, I think he needs some help."

Jack sighed, but couldn't help laughing as he too picked up on the grunts and curses through the walls. God, he was going to miss this place.

* * *

"_You know who I am, Jack Frost, but do you know who you are? Where you came from, who you were in a past life?"_

_Jack's shoulders tensed, as each question hit a nerve inside him. He wanted to move, lash out, attack the man that had confirmed himself as Jokul Frosti, but he was frozen to the spot. Every time he moved the razor sharp glass pinning his feet down would cut deeper into his skin. Jack knew it was a dream, he reminded himself every couple of seconds, but the pain of the ice cutting into his legs felt so real, it was hard to determine dream from reality. Especially when he knew that the person who was doing this to him in his dream, was making this happen in real-life, which was even more terrifying. _

_Jokul Frosti gave a dark chuckle, bringing his hands up and letting the sharp ice crawl even further up his legs. _

"_I didn't think so. I'll be seeing you again, Jack Frost, do not doubt me on that. Pleasant dreams."_

The man's sickening smirk was the last thing Jack saw before he shot up in unfamiliar bed, gasping for air. The blanket and sheets were coated in a thin layer of ice and Jack sighed, relieved that he hadn't frozen half of the room.

Steve slowly opened the door and poked his head in a moment later, followed by a tired, yet concerned looking Alex. "Jack? We heard you yell, are you okay?" Steve asked, his voice still thick with sleep.

Jack mentally shook himself, giving a huge yawn and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes in an attempt to look like nothing was wrong. He smiled at them, trying to calm his rapid breathing back to normal. "Ha, sorry guys, no emergency tonight. Just a crazy dream, I must've been sleep talking. Thanks for checking up on me, you can go back to sleep now, I'm fine." Jack knew he was saying too much, but he really didn't want to drag his friends into this. He wondered if Tony Stark would be awake at this time of night?

Steve gave Jack one last concerned look and nodded, then closed the door. Jack sighed. He hadn't meant to fall asleep in his new apartment, he had just been testing the bed after a tiring day or moving everything around to his preference, and he fell asleep. He was so tired, exhausted actually, but sleeping was the last thing he wanted to do. The nightmare had come, just as he had predicted it would, and he doubted that they would stop. Jokul Frosti said that he'll see him again, which was all the more terrifying.

There was a small knock at the door a moment later, and Jack gave a long suffering sigh. He had guessed that Steve would hear the waver of indecision in Jack's tone of voice, and would come back again. Much to his surprise, a mop of bright red hair could be spotted peering at him through the now-partially opened door. Alex was much more observant than people gave him credit for.

The red-head walked through and stood awkwardly to the side of the modern-looking desk, bare of any papers, as Jack had only moved in last night. "Your eyes were wild, you're still breathing heavily, you were awake when we came in and there's ice on the floor, Jack. What happened? Did someone attack you, were they in here? Why is there ice on the floor? Are you okay?"

The frost spirit gave a hefty sigh, and shifted himself so that he now sat on the edge of the bed. He patted the space beside him, and Alex ambled over to join his friend. The two sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, both listening to the soft sound of each other's breath.

"It was a nightmare. A lot like the one that made me scare that nurse, it made my powers go a little wild. I learnt, when I was at the North Pole, that if I'm defenceless like when I'm sleeping, or overwhelmed like when the agents attacked Steve and I, that my powers will be released and attack as a last-ditch resort. My magic is like a little personality, it can be moody and play up, or be angry or scared and lash out. So when I have these nightmares, it senses danger, and of course I'm sleeping so I can't actually defend myself. So my magic tries to do it for me, hence the ice." Jack finished, gesturing around at the semi-frozen chunks scattered around the bed from where they had fallen.

Alex didn't look confused or curious, or even sad. Just sympathetic. It made Jack feel strange, he had never really had somebody that had been sympathetic towards him before. Well, at least nobody that had ever been direct about it. His friend put a steady hand on his shoulder and sighed.

"Well Jack, I can't say that my ice powers go a little insane when I have reoccurring nightmares, but I'm just here to say that you're not alone. There was this one time, after a mission went a little awry in the UK, I had a particularly nasty nightmare. Long story short, I woke up with my Bo to the throat of one of the guys in my team. We were sleeping in the same cabin, and I was wide awake. I began to nod off, and there was some kind of noise outside, it set me off. My body went into defence mode, I couldn't control myself. It… it wasn't pleasant. I could've killed him, you know."

Alex shrugged as he finished the story, his voice turning from soft and low to bland and indifferent. Like he was trying to forget the words as soon as they left his mouth. Despite his seemingly numb attitude, Jack noticed the slight shudder that passed over his friend's skin as he retold his experiences.

Alex still had a hand on Jack's shoulder and was looking anywhere but at him. Jack put a sturdy hand on his friend's tensed up shoulder, trying to calm him down. "Hey, Alex."

Alex looked up, his breathing faster and his pupils dilated. "Thanks for telling me, you didn't have too you know. I know that you've been through bad stuff, hell, I don't think that there is a SHIELD agent that hasn't. Just… thanks. For calming me down, for noticing that something was wrong, I mean not that I'm angry at Steve or anything, I just want to say thanks."

Alex smiled lightly and clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Hey, thanks for listening. Now, I don't think that any of us are going to get any sleep anytime soon, so what do you say me and you put to use the massive archive of the movies Coulson gave us, hey?"

* * *

Four hours, one and a half movies and two bowls of overly salted popcorn later, Steve entered Jack's apartment after hearing a half-hearted grunt of permission when he knocked. He stumbled upon the sight of a bleary eyed frost spirit and a half asleep agent of SHIELD throwing pieces of burnt popcorn at each other, both cackling madly as the yellowed pieces of snack food hit their individual target.

Steve couldn't supress his smile as he stepped in over dozens of half-full cups containing various soft drinks and miscellaneous candy wrappers, watching as Alex waved to him lazily, still grinning like an idiot, his sleepy laughter bubbling out from his lips. If Steve had to take a wild guess, he'd guess that these two had just come down from a sugar high.

"How long have you two been awake? And what kind of movie _is _this?" Steve questioned, squinting at the strange green creature scheming on the screen.

Jack's cackles only increased in volume, causing Alex to join in. Steve rolled his eyes at the two, even if he found this the most amusing thing he had seen in a while. The soldier found it very strange to see the normally casual and laid back agent and the usually exuberant and humorous frost spirit so tired and acting so strange.

"I broke my Bo!" Alex declared. "I spilt soft drink on it and messed up the gears inside. Looks like I'm back to the basic wooden pole until SHIELD can make me a new one, but that takes weeks! Months even!" the agent half-shouted, laughing and sounding angry all at the same time.

Steve wandered over and picked up the remote, pausing the movie to see the title. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas?" He asked, his eyebrows raised. These movie titles only got stranger and stranger.

Jack's bubbling cackles stopped abruptly, and he turned slowly to Steve, looking his friend dead in the eye, his face deadly serious. "Unpause it, now." Steve was momentarily stunned for a moment, but he warily pressed the play button again, letting the sound of the cheesy carols fill the room once again. Alex had stopped cackling, but was still grinning like a madman. Jack's face changed as soon as the music started up again, from serious to a sleepy grin.

Steve cleared his throat, trying to will away the grin tugging upon his lips in fear of setting the two back into a sleep-deprived laughing fit. "Okay guys, I think that it's time to get some sleep. I'm going to clean this up, and you two can go back to bed, okay?"

He didn't get a reply, only some slurred giggles from Jack. The soldier sighed and began to pile up all the cups and bowls into one heap so he didn't have to make two trips. By the time he returned with a broom to sweep up the rest of the mess, Jack and Alex had already fallen asleep. Steve only rolled his eyes and laughed softly at his friends, wondering when the tenseness between him and Jack, and the strict professionalism between him and Alex had dissolved away, leaving behind friendliness and care. Even though Jack was a three hundred year old spirit of winter, and Alex was a deadly SHIELD agent that knew a thousand different ways to kill you, he found comfort in their companionship. He had found friends, and he was damn sure going to keep it that way.

* * *

The sleeping duo woke to the smell of a mouth-watering meal being cooked not too far away from them, in Jack's newly furnished apartment. The apartment itself was the result of a result of a hasty furniture shipment and basic necessity shopping, such as dinnerware, food, even a new toothbrush. The walls were a welcoming honeyed cream colour, with splashes of white around the edges. Most of the furniture was either a light timber brown or a simple greyed-white. It was a huge difference between the lavish attentions to personality and details that Jack's old room withheld on the Helicarrier, but the spirit found that he didn't really mind it too much. After all, he was supposed to be adapting to a new world, so why not start with a new decorating scheme?

Both he and Alex rolled off of the couch, groaning their displeasure of waking up. They looked at each other from their positions on the floor, silently daring one another to get up first. They lay there for a full minute, until Jack sighed and got to his feet, followed by a triumphant- looking Alex.

"Good-afternoon you two, or should I say, good-night. It's almost 7:00, I was just about to wake you both up for dinner. I hope you like omelettes Alex, they're the only real thing I know how to make. I cooked an extra for you Jack, if you feel like eating. I hope you don't mind me using your food either, I actually went out to the little vegetable store on the corner and bought some fresh ingredients using the money that SHIELD gave us. Everything is so expensive nowadays.'

Jack listened to Steve's mutters as he continued to rant about the cost of a lot of things, and how the money he paid for the vegetables could've bought a car back in his day. Jack was never really too fluent on the concept on money and the 'economy' only really knowing the bare basics, like money bought stuff and the economy relied on money.

Jack decided that if he ate, he would have more energy to stay awake, and realised with a sudden start, that he hadn't had any nightmares last night. Was it because of all the popcorn he ate, or the soft drinks he guzzled? Jack didn't know, but if eating food meant that he didn't dream, his kitchen cupboards and fridge were going to be empty by the end of the week.

Jack nodded when Steve piled a small omelette onto a Tupperware plate and offered it out to Jack. The spirit didn't really feel like eating, and was afraid that if he ate too much, he would become reliant on food. It was something he would have to ask North about next time he saw him. The spirit accepted the food with a grateful smile, much to Steve's surprise, and joined a newly seated Alex in chowing down on the delicious breakfast food.

"s'good Steve! Where'd oo earn' oo ook' ike' dis'?" The agent asked around a mouthful of food, taking care not to let any of it fall out of his already overstuffed mouth. Steve frowned slightly, not accustomed to the strange table manners. "My mother taught me. It was the only recipe I could do really well, without burning the food or turning it into cardboard."

Jack nodded. Perhaps one of the things he and Steve could do to get use to the world around them was learn how to cook. It would be something that they could do in the apartment, and had most of the supplies to do it with, and had the added benefit of feeding them all. He added to the list of things to talk about with Steve later.

It was only a few minutes and an almost-finished omelette later that a bright flash enveloped the room, leaving a small wooden box in its wake. Jack lunged towards it, staff raised and ready to cover the things in a mountain of ice before he realised exactly what it was. North had received the letter and the figurine, and had hopefully sent something back answering all of Jacks questions.

Jack walked the rest of the distance toward the magical box and picked it up, drawing out the letter inside. The ring on his finger glowed for a moment, responding to the magic held within the box, causing Jack to start a little before giving a nervous laugh, pocketing the letter, and picking up the small box.

He turned to Alex and Steve, who were looking quite dumbfounded to say the least. Great. Now he had to explain to two people who knew nothing of his ventures in the North Pole just what this thing was and how it happened.

"Sit down guys; I guess I have a lot of explaining to do."

* * *

An hour later found Jack settling down from being bombarded by a series of complicated questions that required even more complicated answers. The concept of the North Pole had gone over his friend's head at first, and they both thought that Jack was talking about a magical secretive enemy base, and they had used some kind of portal machine to kidnap both him and Tony Stark.

It took a lot of explaining, reassuring and swearing on his life that it was, if fact, Santa Claus he was talking about, and yes, the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, Sandman, Yeti's and Elves really were real, and no, they weren't terrorists codenames.

After that, Jack had to go all the way back and explain the importance Jokul Frosti figurine, which also enlightened Alex on the circumstances that lead to his partnership with Jack. He had explained the attack and the strange figures that attacked the workshop, how they defeated them, the story behind the magical ring, and the message painted into Jack's hood, which both explained to his friends why the spirit no longer wore his beloved hood.

There was also the subject of the nightmares, which Jack glossed over as much as possible. He didn't like to talk about it, and both of them, even Steve seemed to understand what they meant. That this Jokul Frosti character was in fact, real, and that he was proving to be a real threat to jack. The questions from Steve had been mostly about how he was going to deal with the problem, how powerful this guy was, if Jack was feeling ok, and if SHIELD should get involved. They all unanimously agreed that it was best left to the professionals, that being the guardians, of course.

Alex had asked a lot of questions relating to the guardians and Toy Stark. Asking if North was as jolly as they say he is, if the Easter bunny was cute and fluffy, and if Tony Stark was as egotistical as the papers claimed. It was quite a shock to the red-head to learn that North was indeed jolly, but also a huge intimidating Russian with tattoos and swords, the Easter bunny was seven foot tall and cranky most of the time, and that Tony could actually be a nice guy when it came down to it.

Steve listened intently to the questions concerning Howard Stark's son, and smiled softly when most of Jack's answers about Tony's attitude and antics perfectly matched what he knew about Howard. By the sounds of it, they were both very sarcastic and quick-witted, both geniuses ahead of their time, and both good people underneath an exterior of sly comments and jokes.

After all of the hype about Jack's story had settled down, the three decided that they all needed some fresh air and decided to go for a short walk around the block. It was when Steve pointed out the little stand where he had bought some fresh produce from a little while ago, that Jack remembered something.

"Hey Steve, how do you feel about learning to cook with me? I really want to learn, it seems like an interesting skill to have, y'know." Jack said, watching a plastic bag fly past them.

Steve's face brightened, his eyes already portraying all of the possibilities that flitted through his mind. "Sure! Although I have no idea where to start, I'm sure that we'll figure it out."

Alex chimed in. "Hey, I'd like to get in on this action! Let's go find a store that sells cookbooks or something, I think that it'd be as good as place to start as any."

Jack put an arm around his friends shoulder. "I'm sure glad we have you around, I don't think that we'd last the week!"

Alex snorted and gave them a good-natured grin. "Pssshh, I doubt you'd last the day."

The streets were filled with the sound of delighted male laughter, as the three friends made their way down the open pathway.

* * *

"_Dear Jack_

_First of all, thank you very much for sending me the Frosti figurine, I am very glad that it has been received as soon as it was, I do hope it didn't cause you too much trouble. Also, I thank you for informing me about your dreams and the relation to the Frosti figurine, as your insight has helped immensely in the continuing investigation of the attack on the workshop. _

_Inside the box is a small pouch with blackberries enchanted to keep away the nightmares, but beware, they taste very foul and will prevent dreaming all together. Do not worry, the enchantment includes long life, so they will not rot and become inedible. There are only six inside, as too many will make you gravely sick. Do not use them consecutively either, the particular enchantment has been known to drive a mortal man mad. Eating food may help as well, depending on how your metabolism processes it. _

_We are in the midst of cleaning up the workshop, and I regret to inform you that many of my workers, elves and yetis included, were gravely injured, with four fatalities. This is not to be taken lightly Jack, keep your wits about you, these are dangerous times. _

_If there is anything I can do for you Jack, please tell me. I know that you are in the midst of training to become a fierce warrior for your 'SHIELD' agency. If you require any battle armour, weaponry, do not hesitate to ask, I am a skilled blacksmith among other thing, and as far as I know, Bunny is the world's leading authority on weapons of war and hunting, I have learned much from him. _

_The box is enchanted much like my toy sack, only on a lesser scale. You can fit fairly large things into there, just give it a go! I do hope that your ring has proven useful, and that the enchanted glove gifted to Mr. Iron man, I hope he has enjoyed it._

_If I may put in a request of my own, would it be possible to retrieve the results from the energy readings that Mr. Iron Man took, if they have already been analysed. They would be of great help, and I have always been fascinated by observing the link between science and magic. I hope that this is not too much trouble for you, Jack._

_You are welcome in the workshop anytime; do come by for a visit if you are able. Be safe Jack, keep your eyes peeled, and be sure to tell me about any more dreams that you have. Keep my offer in mind; I hope it will come in use to you. _

_Goodbye for now,_

_North _

Jack folded the perfectly written parchment back into its original form and placed it neatly back in the letter. He wandered over to where he had placed the box on his bedside table, and peered inside, noticing for the first time the small leather pouch about the size of his palm and the small bumps inside it.

He thought about the offer of weapons and armour that North had offered him. He had his staff; Steve had his shield (which had been given back to him as a parting gift from Fury when they had boarded the plane bound for New York) Alex had his- oh wait, no he didn't. It had broken last night when his partner had spilt soft drink on it and made it unable to be used. He had an idea forming, but decided to think on it later, for right now; he had to pay a certain billionaire a visit.

* * *

**A/N - How do you express your deepest apologies over the internet? I wish I was rich so I could compensate you all for the wait, but I'm not, so I'll just have to say a HUGE sorry for the enormous wait! This chapter is shorter than the usual 9000 words monsters I've supplied in the last two chapters, and I'm thinking that for your sake, I should shorten them even more. I actually have another story going at the moment! It's called 'Shield For The Superhuman', and I truly hope that you guys can have the time to read it. It didn't really take too much time away from this story, I wrote the first three chapters in separate afternoons, in a burst of inspiration. I have a schedule made up, one that I'm going to try very hard to follow. A thousand words every day, switching between stories. So basically, if I write 1,000 words every day, switching from one story to another, I'll have a fresh new chapter for both stories within 8-10 days, depending on the word count. So what do you think, it's totally up to you guys, shorter chapters for quicker updates, or longer chapter but longer update times. **

**I just want to say a special thanks to Crossover Junkie, who leaves spectacular reviews, but I cant reply to, so I just want say thank you, and that you are loved. Be sure to review and favourite and follow, they truly mean the world to me! If you are reading this story, please do not be afraid to tell me what you think, whether you've reviewed it before or not. If you think it's absolutely trash, tell me so, tell me what you want to see fixed, tell me if any characters are a little OOC, if you like or don't like how the story's going. Be sure to check out my other story, I hope you like it! bye for now, I hope that you liked the cliffhanger as well!**


	13. Chapter 13

"Sir, there is a familiar source of energy around the tower. It has circled the building twice, occasionally loitering on the roof. It appears that the energy source is not making any move to break into Stark tower, and seems only to be curious, but has yet to leave."

Tony Stark, who had been busily welding the finger back onto one of his red and gold gauntlets, looked up sharply, cursing as he hit his head on the lamp he had set over his head so he could have a better view of the internal wires that ran through the reinforced titanium.

"Oh, I think I have a good idea of just what that energy is, and it'd probably explain why the majority of the builders have cleared out for the day due to an unpredictable temperature drop."

The billionaire abandoned his little project and made his way out of the lab, grabbing his coat as he went, giving Jarvis instructions to take him to the roof. The elevator arrived with a 'ding', something that annoyed him to no end, but Pepper insisted on having. He would have to at least program it out of his private elevator, to keep him sane.

Tony stepped out into the brisk night chill, squinting into the brightness of a nearby billboard as it pierced his still-adjusting eyes. Damn, it _was _cold out here; he couldn't blame the workers for calling it a day a few hours earlier. He eyed the abandoned equipment, all gathered into one corner of the roof. There were gaping holes in the roof, where said equipment was supposed to be installed. Most of it was associated with his Iron man suit, little robots that disassembled it as he walked by, another genius invention courtesy of Tony Stark.

The playboy was just wondering if he should put covers on them to protect them from the elements, when he heard familiar peals of laughter a little bit above him, and he looked up, shielding his eyes from the advertisement's harsh glare.

"Hey kid! Stop buzzing around up there and get down here! Not all of us like being exposed to the cold you know!" Tony shouted from his position on the roof. The laughter stopped abruptly, and the philanthropist had thought he had offended Jack until he felt the biting cold of a mound of snow being dumped on his head. The billionaire coughed and spluttered, shaking himself in a desperate instinctual attempt to be rid of the offending element.

Jack floated down from the sky, still laughing at Tony, but also harbouring the fear that he had gone a little too far with the snow. "Y'know, if I wanted a pile of stuff that makes me feel angry and uncomfortable to be dumped on me, I'd talk to me lawyers and get them to give me yesterday's paperwork. What's up winterboy?" Tony quipped, brushing the last chunks of the powdery substance off of the leather of his jacket and scratching his stubble.

"Did you know that you can't see the stars here? To answer your question, dealing with terrifying mysterious magical beings and moving into a new apartment, the usual." Jack said, sporting a snarky grin, one that Tony usually took as a personal challenge.

"It's called light pollution and smog, kid. Get used to it. You move around often, eh?' The playboy asked, completely ignoring the first half of Jack's answer. Jack rolled his eyes and gave Tony a sour look.

"Yeah, I guess I used to before I was frozen in the ice for seventy years, and then woke up and lived on a gigantic floating ship before being basically kicked out and moving into New York." Jack snarked, trying to catch Tony off guard.

The man merely raised an eyebrow and gave a sly smirk. "So I trust that I'll be invited to the housewarming party then?"

Jack gave an exasperated sigh and pulled out the folded letter from the light grey slacks he was wearing, borrowed from Alex. His friend has said that Fury gave them enough money for clothes and food and rent, and that he was going to take both him and Steve shopping tomorrow. He handed it over to Stark, who read it with only a raised eyebrow.

"That's quite an offer he's got there, with the magically reinforced weapons and all. Are you going to take him up on it?"

Jack rolled his eyes again. "You're missing the point, and North didn't say that they were "magically reinforced", only that he was a skilled blacksmith, so that probably means that whatever he makes will be _awesome, _but not magical.

"Yes, I've got the results from the tests, and please. I spent enough time with the jolly old Russian to know that whatever he makes will have at least _some _kind of magical voodoo along with it. He seemed entirely too giddy at the prospect of enchanting things to _not _do it.

Jack mulled over this prospect for a second, before abandoning it from his thoughts and getting back to the task at hand. "Let's go get them, and while we're at it, I need to go over something with you. I have an idea for North's offer, but I want your input on it."

Tony slung an arm over the spirit's shoulder, pulling him close into his side and ruffling his hair. "Kid, you just made my day."

* * *

"So you think that we should make it an inch shorter?" Jack asked the creeping doubt obvious in the tone of his voice.

"How tall did you say your friend was again?" Tony asked distractedly, still fiddling with the hologram at his fingers.

"Uh, about this much taller than me." Jack mumbled, holding his hand a little above the top of his head.

Tony glanced at Jack, before typing in a measurement and looking at the 3D picture with a critical eye. "Yep, I am completely sure that we need to take another inch off of this thing, otherwise it'll overbalance him when he's fighting."

Jack nodded mutely and fiddled with the papers in his pocket. Tony had printed and handed Jack the results of his experiments shortly after the two had wandered inside, but Jack had been there for a little over an hour now, going over the blueprints and measurements for the weapon he was going to ask North to make for him in Tony's lab. Jack wanted it to be perfect, the best one ever made, the best of the best.

The first thing him and Tony had done was brainstorm different magical enchantments that may be really useful in battle. Tony had actually gotten really invested in the idea, getting Jarvis to measure exactly which metals would be more useful, all the different features he could outfit into it, if it could be concealed. He and Jack had actually had a short argument at one point, as Tony wanted to make it himself, but Jack had said no. They bickered for a little under five minutes, before Jack brought up the point that North was skilled in magic and enchantments, and Tony was not, so North could make it better.

Tony hadn't been happy, and was about to argue further until somebody called 'Pepper Potts' called, his phone had flashed with her ID. He had seen Tony wince at the volume of her voice, and had heard her say something along the lines of 'after what happened yesterday, you better best resting, not dicking around in the lab again Tony!', causing Jack to snigger, and Tony to give him a withering glare. Geez, if looks could kill.

Tony spun the image around once more, carefully studying it from all angles, looking for any imperfection or possible room for improvement. "What do you think Jarvis? Anything we could still fix up?"

"If I had to add my own personal opinion sir, I would say that the finished result would be very close to impeccably made."

The billionaire put a hand to his heart. "Oh shush you, don't make me blush."

Jarvis remained silent as jack simply rolled his eyes at the antics of his over-eccentric friend, picking a small build-up of frost out from under his fingernails and flicking it onto the floor, then the little icy pieces up again and quickly stuffing them into his pocket in embarrassment. He didn't want to seem rude by throwing the ice from under his fingernails on the polished cement floor of the lab.

Tony saw exactly what he had done, and sniggered at him while printing the finished design. "Jeez kid, its okay. It's just a little ice, I mean, I'm actually surprised you haven't turned this place into a skating rink yet." The philanthropist said, gesturing wildly around the entirety of the room.

Jack shrugged, floating up to settle lithely on top of one of the machines. "Unless you want to get incinerated, I suggest stop standing on my equipment." Tony called from across the room, where he had wandered over to collect the weapon's blueprints. Jack smiled sheepishly, and settled for crouching on top of his staff next to a cluttered work table.

The billionaire sauntered over, waving the papers in the frost spirit's face. "Here, give these to the big jolly fellow. If he really is the blacksmith he says he is, he should know exactly what to do with these. The list of suggested enchantments we brainstormed are also there as well, that saying that he even wants to enchant them. Make sure you don't lose the results from the energy experiment, the printer's running low on ink."

Jack gave Tony a flat look, and then thanked him for all of his help with designing the weapon.

"Hey, kid, I'm happy as long as you don't freeze the tower, okay? Keep the snow on the down-low this year, and consider the debt repaid."

Jack laughed, thanking his friend again, as they walked back out onto the roof. Just as Jack was about to take off and go back home, Tony said something.

"If you ever need anything kid, you know where to find me. Actually, I might be in Malibu or something, so look it up, but you're always welcome in Stark Tower, okay?"

Jack nodded and waved goodbye as he took off, letting the warm feeling build up in his chest. His friends were far and few, but they were friends, no matter how strange they were, or what kind of problems they came with, he was just so glad to have them.

Jack saw a few papers slip out of his pocket, tugged away by the wind, and snapped back to catch them. He grasped them in mid-air, and sighed in relief. He wouldn't want the design plans for Alex's new Bo to get lost, now would he?

* * *

"Hey Jack, where ya been?" Alex asked casually from his cross-legged position on the floor, where his old Bo was spread out in front of him in little pieces.

"Here and there, went to visit a friend. What are you doing?" The spirit asked, peering over his partners shoulder to see all of the individual little black pieces of metal spread out before him.

Alex gave a dramatic sigh, and fell over onto his side, looking really funny with his legs still crossed in the air.

"It's screwed, the soft drink got into the main components and messed up the internal workings. Usually, it wouldn't be a problem. This thing can take a little water, but because the acids in the soft drink got into everything, and dissolved some of the finer little wires and stuff inside it, it's broken for good. We're just lucky we didn't touch it when we spilled the drink onto it. We would've gotten fried."

Jack furrowed his brow, trying to see why exactly they would've gotten 'fried' if they had've touched it when it was wet.

Alex saw this and explained. "This little baby could deliver a nasty little zap if needed, it was a gift for my promotion to a full agent a little while ago. It's probably going to take months to get a new one in, and most-likely a big chunk out of my pay check." The redhead said, looking wistfully at the disassembled pieces on the floor.

This made Jack feel simultaneously excited and guilty all at the same time. He felt excited because he would hopefully get Alex's new Bo, designed by _Tony freaking Stark_, _assembled by Santa Claus, _in a lot sooner than SHIELD would, and guilty because it was a treasured gift, and it was broken by sheer clumsiness. It made it that much harder not to tell Alex about the gift. He wanted it to be a surprise.

Jack turned his attention to the plate of strange-looking sandwiches piled up on a purple plastic plate, steaming and warm. "What are those?" Jack asked curiously, circling around them and bringing his face closer to the platter for a better look.

Alex looked over his shoulder in surprise, almost dropping the small piece from his Bo he was fiddling with in his fingers and raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, those? They're called 'Grilled Cheese Sandwiches', I thought that Steve would be hungry, so I whipped them up. They're really easy to make, I'll teach you how to make them later if you like." Alex said nonchalantly, waving his hand and turning back to fiddle with the object at his fingertips.

Jack nodded and picked one up, dropping it instantly due to the heat withheld in the crusty surface. To a normal person, it would've been fine to hold for a good few seconds before it began to burn, but to Jack, it was like touching a stove. It can be related to when somebody's hands are freezing cold, because they've been throwing snowballs without mittens or something, and they put their hands in normally-withstandable hot water, making the heat feel a lot hotter than it usually was. It sucked for Jack, but he was used to it, so he didn't think about it too often.

"Where's Steve?" Jack asked, also kind of wondering why Alex was still hanging out in his apartment. Not that he minded of course, just curious was all.

"Oh! That reminds me!" Alex said, jumping to his feet. "Steve's in his room, go get him and tell him to get ready to go shopping. He needs new clothes. Badly. So do you, we're leaving in, uh…" Alex glanced down at his watch, furrowing his brow for a second before finishing his sentence.

"Ten minutes! So hurry!"

"A little late for shopping, isn't it?"

Alex stopped for a minute, rechecking his watch, and smiling awkwardly.

"Huh, I guessed when I checked the time, I didn't actually _check _the time. Hmm, we've already gone for a little bit of a nightly walk, haven't we? Then you disappeared. I've still got bucket loads of energy left over from our little nap, what do you want to do?"

Jack thought for a moment, remembering his annoyance earlier at not being able to see the stars. "Have you ever seen the stars in New York city? Do you like seeing the stars?" The spirit asked, his voice slightly curious, but not overly interested. He didn't want to alert Alex to the plan he was conjuring right at this very second.

Alex scratched his nose, before answering his partner. "I was born and bred right here in this city, Jack. The only time I've ever seen the stars was when I was in a foreign country on a mission or something. And yes, the stars are amazing. It's one of the reasons I actually look forward to overseas assignments, why the sudden interest in the stars?"

Jack brought his thumbs up onto the back of the couch he was leaning against, contemplating his answer. "Well, when you're flying above the clouds, there's just nothing like it. It's amazing. In fact, I was just about to go up there right now, if you'd care to join me?"

Just as expected, Alex shook his head vigorously, his flame-red curls bouncing into his face, his green eyes shimmering with a mix of fear and distaste. "That sounds like a great offer, but it's hard for me to even stay calm inside a plane, let alone clinging onto you for dear life a thousand feet above the clouds."

Jack frowned, pretending to be a little disheartened at Alex's refusal. Secretly, he was jumping for joy. It had been a while since he had seen the stars, and he was eager to frolic in their shining light again, not only that, but Alex's refusal was a key element to his plan, which he was about to put into place.

"Go on then, don't wait for me to change my mind. Tell Steve that you're going out though, he freaked out a little when he found out you were out flying."

Jack nodded and rushed out of the room, knocking on the door that he always knew that the soldier kept locked. Ever since Alex had warned him of the dangers of robbery and people who break into other people's apartments in the nights, the soldier had been a little cautious.

Steve opened, glancing at his friend in surprise before stepping out of the doorway, allowing Jack to enter. "Hey Steve, I'm going flying really soon, for maybe an hour max, just letting you know, ok?"

Steve nodded, hesitating for a brief moment, and then closed his door, seeing that Jack had made no move to enter. "Have fun Jack!" The Captain called through the door.

Jack nodded, more to himself that anyone, as there was nobody around to see him do it. He made his way back to his own apartment, and into his room, quickly emptying his pockets of all of the papers and blueprints and depositing them on his dresser. Jack wanted to get this letter written and sent away fairly quickly, but he feared that his scratchy handwriting and limited writing and spelling ability wouldn't be adequate to send to North, so he settled on asking Steve for help when he arrived back at the apartment, if his friend was feeling better. He didn't bother with getting changed, or putting on a pair of shoes for that matter.

Steve had sounded different, Jack realised as he idly thought back to the very brief conversation the two had shared at Steve's door. He sounded like Jack had caught him completely by surprise. He thought that it looked like the soldier's eyes were red-rimmed, but he couldn't be sure. Had his voice cracked? Steve certainly didn't want to stay around to talk, so it was very likely that something was wrong. His friends didn't like to leave a conversation out in the air like that, even if he wasn't very talkative some of the time. Jack decided that he wasn't only doing this to entertain Alex; he was going to do it in hopes of cheering up Steve.

Jack decided to leave via the window, and not bother with saying goodbye or anything. He wanted to carry out all elements of his plan quickly, before he forgot any of the details. Wrenching the thing open, which took a lot of effort on his part, Jack scrambled through the wide opening and into the cool night air. He breathed a sigh of relief as the frigid kissed his pale skin. He truly loved the cold, it relaxed him, helped him, _healed him._ He'd said it to Alex before, that if he was ever gravely injured, lay him down in the snow, pack in on top of him, and let him sleep for a few days. The cold seeped into his bones, healed him from the inside out. Jack also had a sneaking feeling that the moon was partially responsible, because it was always shining a little brighter whenever he woke up in the midst of the night. The wind was always there to greet him, it's playful currents showing its concerns for their old friend.

* * *

Tonight, the wind knew exactly what he wanted, and took him high into the open sky, above all of the smog and light pollution, making him gasp as he burst through the clouds and witnessed the billions of stars spread across the sky. The moon was there also, outshining all of its companions by a longshot, making Jack feel safe and comfortable thousands of feet in the air.

Jack took his time dancing through the pale wisps of moisture of the clouds, carefully studying and committing the many constellations to memory. He wanted to remember every cluster, every little lonely light in the darkness, if he ever wanted to commit a memory to perfect detail so badly, it was what he was seeing right now.

Jack spent almost forty-five minutes, going well past New-York and into the skies of other cities, getting hundreds of new perspectives to remember, and bringing flurries of snow to the brightly lit cities beneath him. Jack sighed, taking one last look at the twinkling lights, and clutched his staff tightly. It glowed a little under his grip, the magic within responding to his own in its own way of sincere acknowledgement.

At his top speed, Jack raced back to his apartment, looking for the signature snaking red metal pipes that littered the roof. He located, and ducked back through his open window, racing into his living room, a little disappointed to see Alex missing. Regardless, the excited frost spirit flew out of his door and straight into his partner's apartment.

"Alex!" He huffed, scaring the crap out his friend who was sprawled out on the couch.

"Get Steve, be at my apartment in a minute, I have something to show both of you!" Jack waited until his friend gave a bewildered nod, and disappeared back into his own living room, quickly shutting all of the open doors, pulling the curtains closed and turning off all of the lights, plunging the room into darkness. He gave his staff a small shake, and it glowed, lighting to room slightly. Jack sighed with anticipation and placed the magical stick in the middle of the room, rubbing his hands together. "Ok, let's see if I remember what North told me." He whispered to himself.

* * *

"What exactly did he want again?" Steve asked dejectedly, dragging his feet and sighing every few seconds. Alex looked at the soldier with concern shining in his wide eyes, immediately making Steve straighten up and clear his throat.

"I mean, it's very late. Why does he want us to come to his apartment right now?"

Alex shrugged. "I literally have no idea, he just burst into my apartment, out of breath, told me to get you and meet him in his apartment 'in a minute.'" Alex finished, shrugging again, and placing his hand on the doorhandle. He was trying to play it cool, but in truth, he had been extremely bored, and had been staring at the cracks in his ceiling for the past twenty minutes, blowing at the miniscule pieces of dust he noticed floating about.

He knocked, noticing the lack of light under the door, and his curiosity began to get unbearable. They waited for a moment, before the silver handle turned and the door opened by mere centimetres. They could see bits of Jack's pale white hair poking through as their friend poked his face through, grinning like a madman.

"Ok guys, you ready? Close your eyes."

Alex and Steve shared a bewildered look, before reluctantly letting their eyes slip shut and putting their faith in their strange friend. They both felt a cold hand on each of their shoulder's as the door opened fully, and Jack lead them inside.

They walked a few metres, before the tug on their shoulder indicated them both to stop, which they did.

"You can open them now, just wait a few moments."

Steve opened his eyes and was met with pitch black darkness, and stumbled back a little in confusion. In the dim glowing blue light radiating from Jack's staff, he could see the person in question crouched over it, whispering to himself and started intently at the magical object sitting in the middle of the room.

He heard a nervous grunt from Alex as he shuffled around, and much to his surprise, a line of pure, glowing blue ran down Jack's staff , and the mild glow lit up the room momentarily, before the 2D blue screen turned black, and what looked to be stars showed on its screen.

Steve heard Alex suck in a breath beside him. "Jack ,is thi-"

"Shhh, I'm not done yet!" He explained, still crouched over his staff.

After a minute of waiting the room plunged back into blackness, and a stream of mild curses escaped Jack's mouth. He stood and, and stood beside his friends, whispering a few words.

The darkened living room was so silent you could hear a pin drop, the only sound a soft humming from the staff and the soft breathing of the three people in the room.

Suddenly, a bright flash filled the room, making everybody cringe and shield their eyes. Jack let out a giddy laugh, and stepped away from his staff. It was Alex who noticed it first, his gasp making Steve pause, wondering what was so amazing that it reduced the agent to nothing more than a dramatized breath of air.

The soldier blinked away the remaining light from the flash, and he too, let out a gasp. It was beautiful. The dark room had been turned into the shimmering night sky, the shining stars dotted around the room, suspended in the air. They move around, as if part of a video, and Jack let out a pleased sigh.

"What you're both seeing is my memory, rather, what I saw when I went for a flight before. I'm so happy that it worked."

Nobody said a word, as the memory moved slowly around them. Alex put a hand up, and ran his fingers through the shining pinpricks. Both men gasped in unison as the shining fullness of the moon came into view. It outshined everything in the room, drawing everybody's attention like a moth to the flame. Nobody moved, everybody held their breath, as if in the presence of royalty. As quickly as it came, the moon moved out of view, and the stars began to move around, gently moving up and down as the memory moved about, nearly leaving the two awestruck man in tears, the sheer beauty and realness of the hologram drawing out their emotions, leaving behind nothing but simple awe.

It was hard to remember that they were still in the apartment, because the room around them was so dark, the only light in the room supplied by the stars. If the floor underneath their feet wasn't a constant reminder that they were on the ground, both of the men would've believed that they were among the stars, floating away in the vastness of the sky.

Alex broke the thick silence, laughing with a pure childlike joy, and walking forward to explore the rest of the hologram as it moved about, seeming to move with the stars as they travelled through what seemed the sky, but was really only the apartment.

Steve looked down at Jack, who was leaning his side against his staff, smiling broadly. The spirit looked at Steve from his somewhat slumped position, and extended an arm, broadly gesturing the starry wonderland before them. Steve didn't have to be told twice, and stepped forward to explore the stars, laughing softly to himself.

What seemed like hours only lasted another forty minutes, much to everybody's dismay. The hologram changed as Jack's memory showed him diving down and exiting the clouds, letting the city come back into view.

They watched as Jack flew through skyscrapers, finally entering through the window and running down the hallway towards Alex's room. The spirit whispered a few words, and the room returned to its dull darkness again, the vague shapes of furniture becoming visible once more.

Alex wandered over and flicked on the lights, Steve joined Jack where he was sitting comfortably on the couch, and pretty soon, the three of them were engaged in friendly conversation, chatting long into the hours of the night and early morning.

* * *

"Psst, Steve."

"What?" Came the reply from across the room, where Jack could make out a vague Steve-shaped blob from across the room.

"Are you hungry?" Jack asked.

"A little, why?"

"Because Alex has a plateful of 'grilled cheese' sandwiches in the fridge. Want some?"

"Sure, let's do it."

Both people got up from their position on the couch, wandering over to the kitchen, where Jack opened the fridge and pulled out the heaping pile of cold cheesy goodness, setting them on the countertop, and leaving the fridge open for a source of light.

"We're not going to eat them cold, are we?" Steve asked, crinkling his nose in the dim light.

"Well I am, but we can use the microwave thing to warm them up if you need."

Jack saw Steve hesitate for a brief few seconds, before nodding slightly and picking up the entire platter. Jack opened the microwave, and Steve shoved all of the food in, just managing to fit it all in the tight space.

"Okay, now what do we do?" The soldier asked.

"Uh, well these buttons on the side let us heat it up for however long we want to. How long do you think we should put it in for?"

"Well, back in my day, a turkey took a good six or seven hours to cook, but these are a lot smaller, and this thing is supposed to be a lot faster than an oven from the forties, so, uh, an hour?"

Jack nodded his head, punching in the number and wandering to sit at the barstools along the bench and wait.

It was twenty minutes later that a foul smell began to permeate the apartment, and fifteen when a loud explosion rocked through the early morning silence.

Alex Summers bolted out of the armchair he had been snoozing in, looking around wildly for his friend. What was that noise? Where was Jack? Where was Steve? Are they alright? These were some of the questions that rushed through his frazzled brain as he ran wildly over to the kitchen, where there was a gaping hole where the microwave had been, and little bits and pieces of the kitchen appliance scattered across the tiled floor.

"What in the hell?" Alex muttered to himself, getting low to the ground and making his way over to the counter. If there was an intruder in here, there was no way they were getting out without a serious ass kicking, especially if Alex had had anything to do with it.

Alex rounded the corner of the bench, and to his surprise (and great relief) he saw Jack lying under Steve, who was just beginning to get up. By the looks of it, Steve had tackled Jack down when the explosion went off, trying to keep him from harm.

Surveying the area again, Alex noticed that there was some things that wouldn't be part of the microwave scattered across the floor and walls. They were black and burnt, but Alex would recognise his favoured food anywhere. Grilled cheese sandwiches.

In a flash, the ruined microwave, the burnt smell, the guilty look on both Steve and Jack's faces all came together and became clear. He turned his bewildered look on the two who were standing now, Steve looking anywhere but Alex and Jack taking an interest in a piece of twisted metal near his foot.

Alex sighed. "I guess you two need a long lesson on how to use the kitchen appliances, so you don't scare the ever-loving crap out of me next time you want to heat up food."

* * *

Jack strolled out back into the cosy living room and joined Steve where he sat on one of the white and grey barstools at the bench, fiddling with his thumbs, eyeing the burnt hole in the wall where microwave had sat.

"Nervous about shirt shopping, are we?" Jack asked cheekily, sliding into his seat, watching as Alex upended the steaming pile of grilled cheese sandwiches into a plastic tupperware container and stashed it away in the fridge for later. Jack made himself a mental note to try one for later, when they were cooler and not as hot.

Steve snorted, glancing at Jack for a second before returning his attention to his thumbs. "Not really, just maybe a little more… ah… wary… about all of the people and all. It's just so strange to see everything so bright and shiny and flashing. Everywhere you look, there's somebody holding a mobile phone, or another automobile beeping at you to move out of the street. Do you know what I mean?" He asked, a desperate glint to his eye.

Jack wanted to tell the truth, wanted to say that even though he had gone through the exact same thing as Steve had gone through, had slept in the ice for seventy years, he was used to it. He was used to watching the world change before his eyes, used to seeing the advancements in technology and trends and how the world evolved. Jack didn't have anybody from the past that he missed dearly, didn't leave any loved ones behind when the ship crashed into the ice.

Steve did, and Jack could see that he missed the past, missed his friends and family with every waking moment, which only made things that much harder on his friend. Jack wanted to be there for him, and was probably the only one Steve could actually relate to about the whole dilemma. Jack didn't want to let him down, or make Steve feel that he couldn't talk to him about his troubles adapting, just because Jack didn't find it too much of a problem. Because regardless, he was there for his friend, the first person he befriended when he woke up, hell, the first person who saw him! Jack still felt overly foreign to some things, like the craziness of the streets or the tall buildings, but things like the 'overly priced loaf of bread' or mobile phones didn't really phase him, because things like the economy and technology were never really things that he paid attention to when he spent his days crossing countries and frolicking in the wind.

"I know right? The world's too busy, there's also a lot more jets and aeroplanes in the air than I was used to." Jack said sheepishly.

"Yes boys, the world sucks, but there are seven billion other people out there suffering as well. Are you ready to go?" The agent asked casually.

Steve and Jack, however, found it quite difficult to move, as their jaws had dropped to the floor. "H-how many people did you saw there were?" Jack stuttered, sharing a glance of confused terror with the soldier beside him.

"Uh, seven billion?" Alex said, throwing a bewildered look at his two dear friends before realisation dawned over his features.

"Oh, uh, that's right. You guys have a lot of catching up to do. Tell ya what, we'll swing by the public library and check out some history books. I'll even look for a fact-book or something, just in case you get tired of reading about the musical trends of the early 80's or something." Alex joked, chuckling to himself.

Steve gave his friend a wary smile, still reeling over the little tibit of information he had just been told. "Thanks Alex, I'm afraid the 'digital ebooks' Fury delivered on this 'tablet' thing just aren't cutting it for me, so some good ol' fashioned books will be a relief."

Jack smiled, nodding distractedly. His mind had wandered elsewhere, back to the figure that haunted his dreams. He hadn't appeared when Jack had passed out on the couch, and Jack can't remember dreaming at all since then.

The spirit was interrupted from his thoughts when Alex clapped his hands. "Alright, it's time to go. We need to buy an entire wardrobe for a winter spirit and a super soldier from the forties, _and _get a new microwave." The redheaded agent drawled, giving a pointed look in the direction of Steve and Jack, who hung their heads in shame.

"Come on then you two, we've got a big day ahead of us."

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back with another chapter, and with what I consider to be my quickest update in a long while! I hope you guys enjoy, this chapter was more of a bonding/fluffy kind of chapter and it was a little all over the place, so I apologise! I'm looking forward to writing all about the boy's little shopping trip, I promise some laughs. I hope you liked the star scene, and that it didn't sound to weird, I read it over and over again, hoping that it sounded wondrous enough! Thanks for keeping up with the story guys, and don't forget to check out my other story if you have the time! For now, Read, Favourite, Follow and Review! Also, If you haven't seen it already, check out the cover art for this story, it's freaking awesome! All of my heartfelt gratitude goes out to xfireflyskyx for your amazing cover, thanks again!**


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